Twitter is reportedly renegotiating terms for a deal with Bing. The social networking and microblogging service failed to agree terms with Google earlier this month which saw Google suspend its realtime search product. Google had been allowed to access Twitter’s real time stream of tweet data. The agreement, originally announced in October 2009, expired on July 2.
Microsoft has a similar deal with Twitter which allows it to use tweet data in its search results. All Things Digital reports that Twitter is attempting to renegotiate a deal with Bing. According to the site’s sources, Microsoft and Bing are “far apart” on a number of issues, including the price for a deal and the way tweets and advertising will be displayed on Bing. Microsoft has used its Twitter deal to include real-time Twitter updates into its news and search pages. If Microsoft is able to strike a deal before Google then it would have priority access to Facebook and Twitter results on its search results ahead of Google.
Microsoft has also been working closely with Twitter for its Windows Phone integration. Windows Phone 7.5 will include Twitter integration when it’s made available later this year. Several Microsoft employees have tweeted a variety of messages that appear to be test messages for Twitter Windows Phone integration recently. Microsoft had previously promised that Windows Phone Mango Twitter integration would be built in during the June timeframe so it appears the company is on schedule. External builds of Windows Phone Mango, available to developers, do not currently support Twitter integration.
If Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is involved in the Twitter talks then he’ll need to update his private Twitter account to impress the Twitter folks. Ballmer has previously used @stevebmicrosoft during speeches. He has not tweeted since November 5 when he was touring Europe promoting Windows Phone 7 and the company’s cloud services.
