Google and Bing team up with Twitter

Twitter has signed deals with search rivals Google and Bing that will see entries from the micro-blogging site appear on both search engines.

The deals signal a new phase in the race to create a 'real-time' search engine, offering the most up-to-date information on the web.

Google has previously expressed its admiration for Twitter's capability to provide up-to-the-minute information and hopes to integrate the data into its search results in the next few months.

"We are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results," said Marissa Mayer of Google.

"We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months," Mayer continued.

On the same day Microsoft announced that it had also signed a deal with Twitter to provide searchers with information from Twitter, which is live now, but only for surfers in the US.

"You can now search for what people are saying all over the web about breaking news topics, your favorite celebrity, hometown sports team, and anything else you use Twitter for to stay on top of today," said Paul Yiu of Microsoft.

Twitter's Biz Stone said that there was no conflict of interest in teaming up with two rival search engines.

"We've always taken an open approach to how people experience Twitter, particularly in how and where tweets are read," said Stone.

"Users have benefited greatly from the abundance of choice provided by our ecosystem partners," he continued.

None of the firms revealed any of the financial terms of the respective deals.