Back in December 2009 Google introduced their ‘Real-time’ search, which presented updates from live Tweets, Yahoo Answers and news pages, which seemed to open up a world of possibilities for brands to become exposed through social network updates and discussions between the general public. Now with the launch of Google’s Myspace and facebook ‘Real-time’ search the spread of up-to-the-minute, as-it-happens (or as discussed) searching will only increase the possibility of finding ‘from the source’ information.
The morning commute:
A real-life metaphor for ‘Real-time’ searching
Take a look at a search result from your Tweet Deck or www.search.twitter.com and what you find is pretty much white noise. It’s fairly similar to the drone of my morning bus journey, with countless commuters broadcasting their thoughts and inner most secrets to not only the friend on the other end of the line, but to the general public squashed up next to them. If I can keep this comparison of London public transport and ‘Real-time’ search going for long enough without losing your interest it’s worth thinking about the fact that some things you hear from the guy sitting next to you on the way to work is oh so very interesting. And this is pretty much how it works.
Image taken from Tech Crunch
Our daily interaction with brands and products inevitably brings us that joyous wonder or downright annoyance that is the Ying and Yang of modern consumerism, and as we give up our opinions and thoughts to our social network of friends, our experiences with said products and brands becomes public property. This (un)insightful (depending on your stance) information is open to the public as well as the brands in question. And those brands are listening. Online services such as Trendrr are allowing brands to track the ‘noise’ made about them online and it’s not only brands that are gathering this vital information, but whole industries. Trendrr have recently announced their tools are being used by the entertainment industry to track discussion on details such as a certain tv channel’s popularity in particular cities.
How Bing.com have got it right
As well as the discussion of brands and products, the most important use of this new search functionality in my opinion is our opportunity to discover news stories as they unfold.
Image taken from Tech Crunch
An example of this has been taken from Bing.com, where there is already a ‘Real-time’ Twitter search function in use. When a Time square bomb threat was exposed over the web in December 2009 it was Bing.com who had the capabilities to present ‘live’ search results of what was going on down at the ‘scene’, while searching via Google simply fed back tourist information and New Year’s Eve hotspots, without a sniff of the breaking news.
This is a clear example of how we are beginning to ‘find’ our news, where the traditional means have for a while now been just too slow to keep up with the public sharing of ‘on the scene’ information. This is clearly no phenomenon, but what will be interesting to see is how users will share information on and interact with brands through ‘Real-time’ searching and how these brands in question will react to or utilise the opening up of public opinion on such a spotlit stage such as Google.com.