Bing integrates Twitter search and drowns you with life’s minutiae [Update]

If you were beginning to think that Twitter was some silly fad that would quickly pass, think again. As if politicians, public intellectuals and celebrities on Twitter weren’t enough to convince you of its staying power, search engines are beginning to integrate real-time web into its results. Microsoft has recently announced that it will be bringing Twitter search to its Bing search service. Anyone unfamiliar with how Twitter really works will wonder, “Why would I want to see what people are saying on Twitter in my search results? I don’t care what people are eating for lunch, watching on TV or how exhaustive their gym workouts were.” Maybe it’s time to jump on the bandwagon, people, because Twitter is a whole lot more than that.

When a US Airways plane crash-landed on the Hudson river, Twitter brought real-time news and images from the incident. When riots broke out in Iran after its lopsided elections, news from the streets hit Twitter first and it was also the only way some could communicate. When there is an earthquake, a freeway closure, new services and products being announced, or anything that would be of tremendous real-time value, Twitter almost always delivers first.

It’s time to ditch all those ideas about Twitter being nothing more than a chamber full of trivial noise from attention-seekers. While there is still very much of that going on on Twitter, Bing is going to prove to the masses that the information passed along on the microblogging service will be contextually relevant and important to the future of search.

Via Bing

Update: Google didn’t give Bing the spotlight for long. Google now includes Twitter search as well.