The new battle to take control of real time search is fascinating - not only because it could form the foundations for a proper assault on Google, but also because it shows that the Bing and Yahoo venture is a merging of two giants that are more out of touch than first thought.

They are still trying to replicate Google’s existing formula for success – rather than innovating and looking to capitalise on the next big thing. This has been a problem for Microsoft for a while. They almost missed the boat on the internet (high vaulting off the pier at the last minute) and now they’re showing their inability to recognise newly relevant trends yet again.