Bing has renewed its partnership with Twitter, meaning Google may have to rely even more heavily on G+. Image: Flickr / powerset / CC-BY

For search engines, providing the fastest and most relevant search results is the name of the game. Today, Twitter and Bing announced that their two-year partnership has been renewed. Essentially, this deal will increase Google’s reliance on its own social network.

Twitter and Bing renew their vows

In an obviously-planned exchange, Twitter and Bing announced the renewal of their two-year-running search partnership.

Bing’s Social Cred

In July of 2011, Google’s “Real Time” search feature essentially disappeared. This is because on July 2, Google’s deal with Twitter expired. At the same time, Bing was integrating both Twitter and Facebook into its search results. The combination of social media information and search engine results is providing fodder for Bing, which is slowly but surely gaining market share.

The question of G+ usage

With the loss of Twitter and no chance of a Facebook deal, Google had to create its own stream of user-created content. Thus, Google created Google+ in an effort to encourage users to create their own version of social networking information. There are competing reports on the number of users on Google+ and how successful it currently is. There is nowhere near the same stream of content coming out of G+ that there is coming out of Twitter and Facebook. Google has stated that it will be figuring +1 shares heavily into search results.

What this means for SEO

For search engine optimization, the reality of the Bing/Twitter deal is obvious. Social sharing will play a huge part in the results that a search engine serves up, but it will not be the only thing that plays into those results. Staying on top of social networking is important, but keeping up with whatever social network you choose is more important – depth is as important as breadth.

Sources:

The Real Time Report
Web Pro News
Quantum SEO Labs
Search Engine Land
ComputerWorld