The deal between Microsoft and Twitter for the Twitter results showing up in Bing as part of the real-time search results seems to have been renewed. There might be an official announcement still to be made for the talks, but an assumption can be concluded from a series of tweets which were shooted out by @bing and @Twitter accounts on Twitter.
There has not been any announcement via a blog post or a press release which talks about the renewal. A spokesperson for Microsoft only stated that they are happy to let everyone know that the collaboration between Microsoft and Twitter has been extended, but the terms of agreement were not shared. The response came in when the question about this deal renewal was popped in. However, this might even give an indication that the collaboration could be for something more than just the Twitter’s provision of real-time search results.
Mid-July there was an update reported by AllThingsD, which was in reference to Twitter’s failed attempts in coming to terms with Google for its “firehose” data stream licensing deal with Google. Twitter wasn’t done with their attempts as they had then even tried closing in a similar deal with the Software giant, Microsoft. For Google, after their talks ended with Twitter, they pushed their entire real-time search product offline. One can update the July story of AllThingsD as:
“Bing, whose original Firehose deal — which like Google’s was signed in the fall of 2009 — was for six months longer than Google’s. Among the less contentious terms is the licensing fee. Twitter wants about $30 million per year for its exhaustive real-time stream, a doubling of the previous fee. But Microsoft (like Google) hasn’t yet agreed to Twitter’s other demands: More user interface control, a larger cut of ads sold next to its tweets and more linking back to Twitter, sources said. Microsoft would also like a longer term than Twitter is offering.”
This could make many think about what might be coming up for the biggies involved in the web world.
In another development, Yahoo’s CEO, Carol Bartz has been fired from her role. This could still mean a lot to Microsoft as Carol was the CEO when Yahoo struck a partnership with Microsoft. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO had signed on the dotted line to roll their partnership. With now Carol out of the CEO post, the future of the said partnership might face a threat and as the partnership was for a 10-year tenure, it could mean a lot for the future of both the companies.
The history behind these two companies has been loud and clear in the minds of their fans and other followers as there was a proposal from the Software Giant to buy Yahoo for a whooping $45 billion, which could not go out well as the then Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang had taken his own sweet time to conclude on a ‘Yes’. Current status of Yahoo is worse as its shares are down, its market share is even not that good as it used to be earlier on.