Skip to main content

Yahoo Turns to Twitter to Help Improve Search Status

tweetYahoo Inc. is jumping on the Twitter bandwagon in its latest attempt to get people to use its Internet search engine more frequently.

Beginning Thursday, Yahoo will mine the short messages posted on Twitter to find fresher information about hot topics.

Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. had earlier announced plans to incorporate Twitter messages into search results, but Yahoo said it will be the first among them to include such “tweets” on its main search results.

The addition comes at a pivotal time for Yahoo. The company, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is bogged down in a three-year financial slump partly because it has losing ground in the lucrative Internet search market to Google and, to a lesser extent, Microsoft.

The Twitter twist is the latest sign of Yahoo’s resolve to spice up its search results even as it prepares to lean on Microsoft for most of the technology powering its search engine. That transition is scheduled to begin next year.

Microsoft so far is listing Twitter results in a special section of its search engine, Bing.

Google, the Internet’s search leader, also plans to include Twitter’s chatter in its search results, but has yet to say when that change will occur or how it will do it.

Yahoo is relying on Twitter to highlight the latest news about specific subjects. When a user enters a search request tied to breaking news, Yahoo will top the results page with four tabs — one for direct links to news sites, one for photos, one for video and one dedicated to Twitter.

Clicking on a Twitter tab will show news links posted by Twitter users. Some of the links will be drawn from Twitter accounts set up by the news media, such as CNN and The Associated Press, while others will be pulled from people pointing out a story they find interesting.

Yahoo is relying on its own algorithms to identify the tweets containing the most relevant information. Twitter’s own search engine, by contrast, shows results in chronological order and doesn’t focus exclusively on posts containing news links.

This probably won’t be Yahoo’s only foray into “real-time” search — a term used for indexes consisting of the freshest information posted on the Web. Yahoo also is experimenting with data from several other real-time search services, such as OneRiot.

Twitter isn’t being paid any money for access to its posts because Yahoo is relying on free tools to get them, said Larry Cornett, Yahoo’s vice president of consumer products.

Microsoft and Google haven’t said how much they are paying Twitter in their respective deals.

Twitter, based in San Francisco, has generated little revenue since its 2006 inception, yet private investors recently estimated the startup’s market value at about $1 billion.

The lofty appraisal stems from Twitter’s rapid growth. Nearly 60 million people worldwide now use the service to share their thoughts in 140 characters or less, according to comScore Inc. At the end of last year, 4 million people were regularly using Twitter.

As its reach has extended, Twitter has turned into a prized resource for search engines trying to monitor what people are talking about.

Other Internet companies such as LinkedIn Corp. are latching on to Twitter in other ways. LinkedIn, which runs a Web site for business networking, recently began letting users to simultaneously update their posts on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Although its Web site remains among the most visited on the Internet, Yahoo has been hurt by more trendy hangouts such as Facebook that are luring away Web surfers and advertisers.

Yahoo also has been struggling in Internet search. Its engine remains the Web’s second most popular behind Google’s, but its share has been shrinking for years and now it appears some users may be defecting to Bing, which Microsoft has been promoting heavily since its June debut.

Editors' Recommendations

Dena Cassella
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Haole built. O'ahu grown
The best alternatives to Google Search
Five search engines that won't track every move you make.

Google may be the biggest and most popular search engine by far, but its data harvesting practices can leave a bad taste in your mouth. But it's not the only search engine out there, and in fact, many of them can offer something that Google doesn't: Privacy.

Here are some of the best alternatives to Google Search, with a collection of useful features and the option of remaining entirely anonymous, no matter what you're looking for.
Startpage

Read more
Windows Search is down, but don’t panic. Here’s how to fix it
windows search down fix 10 cortana laptop 768x768

If you're seeing a blank box when searching for a file or running a web search in Windows 10, don't panic -- you're not alone. According to multiple reports on Reddit and from across the internet, Windows Search is down for many users around the globe, but you can partially fix it with a technical workaround.

This issue appears to be linked to a problem with the Windows Search integration with Microsoft's Bing search engine, as noted by Windows Central. Microsoft hasn't officially acknowledged this yet, but mentioned other latency concerns with Microsoft 365 services and confirmed it is investigating.

Read more
Microsoft will never win the search engine wars by forcing people to use Bing
bing wants to make it easier for you scope out a new neighborhood zoom in

Bing is known as the default search engine for Windows, and not much else. Microsoft's solution? To forcibly install a Bing search extension in Chrome for Office 365 ProPlus users.

The company says that this is designed for enterprise and business users to find relevant workplace information directly from the browser address bar, but we all know Microsoft is desperate to get more people using its search engine. It sounds harmless, but here's why forcing people to use Bing won't help Microsoft in the long run.
Bing has a bad track record
Marketing jargon aside, the idea that Microsoft has with this is simple. By forcing enterprises and businesses with Office 365 Pro Plus to use Bing, the overall share and usage of the search engine might increase. However, there's one problem. As it stands, Bing doesn't have a good track record, and people might not want to use it at all, even if forced to it.

Read more