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Deals between Microsoft's Bing and social-networking giants Twitter and Facebook are the type of non-traditional approach Microsoft needs as it seeks to chip away at Google's big lead in the search market, according to an analyst. "They've been at this for four or five years, and it's good to see them accelerating and adding things that Google doesn't have," said Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft.

Integrating Social Networking

The deals will add Twitter tweets and Facebook updates into Bing's search results. A Bing blog posting verified the arrangement with Twitter but didn't provide details.

The posting said Microsoft is offering a U.S. beta of Bing Twitter search. The beta allows users to search Twitter feeds on any topic and provides choices to display the results.

Tweets can be viewed as they are posted, full pages of tweets can be displayed, or tweets can be ranked by the number of followers the author has. Entries identical to earlier tweets are ranked lower, according to the blog.

The Facebook deal was announced at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. A company statement said, "Today we announced that we are working with Microsoft to make status updates that Facebook users choose to make public to 'everyone' on Facebook also available in real time through Bing search. With this partnership between Facebook and Bing, search becomes more relevant and social than ever, giving people the ability to discover what's happening in the world right now. This new functionality will be available early next year."

Real-Time Reaction

Rosoff said the concept of integrating social networking into search will help Bing provide more timely information. "Twitter feeds in particular offer a different type of information than is usually available through search engines," he said. "It provides up-to-the-minute sentiment on and information about particular topics. News can... Tags: blog, microsoft

NewsFactor - Fresh out the door, users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 are complaining of glitches one day after the IE8 final build was made available at noon Eastern time on Thursday. Dozens of posters are complaining about printing from Web sites, search functions, and disappearing images. Tags: microsoft

The video-game industry is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise grim economic environment. According to figures compiled by market research firm NPD Group, sales of games and hardware were 10 percent higher in February compared to a year before, bringing in a robust $1.47 billion in revenue.

That good news follows a similar increase in January, when U.S. retailers reported a 13 percent rise. Altogether, the industry has generated nearly $3 billion in sales in the first two months of this year.

In an e-mail to media late Thursday, NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier said that despite the tough economy, "the U.S. video-game industry continues to post strong year-over-year comps. Unit sales increased even more than dollar sales did, reflecting a slightly lower average retail price for all categories as compared to last year."

Wii Remains Ahead

The leader of the pack in the game-console battle once again was Nintendo, which sold a remarkable 753,000 Wiis in February alone. The company was also strong in the handheld market, selling 588,000 DS devices.

Microsoft finished in second place for the month, moving 391,000 Xbox 360 units, while Sony once again brought up the rear with 276,000 PlayStation 3 sales.

Taken together, hardware sales increased slightly more than the video-game sector as a whole, rising 11 percent over the same period last year.

Sony's solid position at the back of the console pack has lent credibility to rumors that the company is planning a price reduction (estimated to be $100 off the PS3's $399 price) to regain market share. News on whether the company will go through with a price drop and how much it will be is expected at the end of next week.

America Getting in Shape?

Nintendo also took top honors in the software segment -- the Wii Fit with Balance Board sold 644,000... Tags: games, microsoft, research, software, video