Microsoft 's Facebook deal a 'smart move'

Bing has had a hard time making any major dents into Google's market-leading search standings. Despite a tie up with Yahoo, Bing is only being used for around 15% of web searches made.

The announcemnt was being viewed as a major coup by industry-watchers, not least when Google Chief Executive Eric Schimdt called the deal a 'smart move' when speaking at a technology conference yesterday.

But later in the day, Twitter proved its real worth when Google also announced a deal to integrate 'tweets' into search results. "We hope more working relationships with organisations in the search business will mean even more variety for users", wrote Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.

In addition to the Facebook and Twitter deals, Microsoft will be placing prospects for growth in the success of Windows 7, released at midnight last night in Australia.

The company will be hoping to renew the dented image of its operating system, following the glitches that plagued its last release, Windows Vista. Many businesses failed to update to the new OS, instead sticking with Windows XP.

"This is a critical first step for microsoft regaining that credibility", said PC Mag.com editor in chief Lance Ulanoff.  Featuring the much touted 'gesture-based'computing for touch-screen and mouse-users alike as well as host of new features, the wider industry will also be hoping for a boost in sales of new pcs.