What Will Microsoft And Yahoo Do If The Google-Twitter Partnership Takes Off?

Earlier this year, Google Inc GOOG and Twitter Inc TWTR inked a new deal that will bring Twitter data to the world's largest search engine.

Little is known about the agreement, but analysts have high hopes that this will prove to be meaningful partnership. If the deal is successful, it could widen the gap between Google and its search engine rivals, including Yahoo! Inc. YHOO and Bing from Microsoft Corporation MSFT.

Twitter expert Sean Udall thinks this could be huge for the social network.

"I think an interesting thing could happen -- and this could be very good for Twitter -- in that Microsoft literally might be forced to do the same deal," Udall, CIO of Quantum Trading Strategies and author of The TechStrat Report, told Benzinga.

Bing and Twitter have a search deal that was formed in 2009, renewed once in 2011 and renewed again in 2013. It is not clear how the Google and Bing search deals differ, but the Google partnership is expected to be far more expansive.

Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told Benzinga that the Bing-Twitter deal appears to be "winding down."

Related Link: The Google-Twitter Deal Is A 'Win-Win' For Both Parties, Wedbush Analyst Says

'Recipe For Disaster'

Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry said that he does not expect Yahoo or Microsoft to follow Google's path and announce new Twitter partnerships.

"In the Internet space, if you do what other people are doing you are not going to be successful," Chowdhry told Benzinga. "You need to do things that other people are not doing."

Chowdhry said that Google has been unable to make a dent in social media, which is dominated by Facebook Inc FB.

"Think about social networking," he said. "Has Google done any damage to Facebook? No! Think about search. Has Facebook caused any problems for Google? No! Zero! I don't think other companies need to do anything with Twitter that way. Other companies have to do something so dramatically different that [cannot be imitated]. Imitation and copycatting is a recipe for disaster."

Chowdhry is instead focusing on the value Microsoft brought to Yahoo, which led to Yahoo's relationship with Firefox.

"That is significant," he added. "If you look at Apple, Apple is working with DuckDuckGo -- very significant."

Apple Inc. AAPL quietly announced a deal with DuckDuckGo (buried inside of a press release for OS X Yosemite) in June 2014.

Twitter: A Better Buy Than Ever Before?

Udall noted that, in addition to Google, Twitter is working on a Spotlight deal with Apple. But he is most excited about the Google deal.

"If [Google's] search rankings start rising rapidly, what is it going to force Microsoft and Bing to do?" Udall questioned. "I think the odds of a Twitter buyout by Microsoft could increase exponentially if this Twitter-Google search deal shows serious legs, which I think it's going to."

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.