Twitter has teamed up with Russian search engine Yandex for a deal that will allow Yandex to display public tweets in its search results.
Twitter's search agreement with Google expired in July and was not renewed. Google's new social search initiative, Search Plus Your World, uses social results from its own social network, Google+.
Similar to Google’s social search integration, the Twitter deal will allow Yandex to display real time tweets. Twitter has also done a deal with Microsoft’s Bing. The company wants ‘discovery through search’, helping Twitter grow its reputation as a source of breaking news as well as opinion and links.
"We wanted to make sure that Twitter content can be where Twitter users are already going," said Twitter's director of business development, April Underwood. "Discovery through search is so important."
Yandex is even bigger than Google in Russia, with 60 per cent of the market share. Google gets 25 per cent of Russian Internet searches currently. Twitter and Yandex have not disclosed the financial details of the arrangement.
"People share news, exchange opinions, and discuss all sorts of matters in real-time all the time," Yandex's blog search manager Anton Pavolv said. "This kind of information will help us enhance our search results."
