Bing  was the first of the big search engines to integrate Twitter  into results, albeit, not in the most exciting of implementations. Today, Microsoft’s fledgling search tool is doing a bit more with Twitter, launching BingTweets, a separate site that combines Bing search with Twitter search and trending topics.

via BingTweets: Bing + Twitter Search Results Side-by-Side.

What it means: as I discussed in my “I have seen the future of local media“, integration of real-time search with regular search creates an environment that provides much better search results to consumers. This is a smart move by Bing to differentiate themselves, although I would have integrated real-time results directly in Bing and I would have also integrated other sources than Twitter.

Update: the Bing team explains the project. I love the example they’re giving as it is very time sensitive: “For example, when Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince comes out tomorrow, you may want to scan the official reviews, local theater listing, AND the latest Tweets on the movie to help you decide whether to rush to see it. With BingTweets, you can cover all that ground in one place.”