Not sure about you, but I'm trying to stave off the agita I'm getting around the latest Google-Twitter-Facebook clash for real-time search.
Google Operating System's Alex Chitu threw a wrench in the machine when he found Google's code reference to a microblogging service. Chitu wrote:
"Much like Google Blog Search, Google's microblogging search service will sort the results by relevancy and it will also be integrated with Google's web search engine: the keywords that are frequently used in recent posts will trigger a MicroBlogsearch universal search group."
The New York Times' Randall Stross is also having issues with this: "Do we really want Google's search engine to swallow Twitter's output as fast as it comes, without filtering, analyzing and ranking by authority?"
Further reading
Yesterday, we learned Facebook is moving closer to real-time search. Facebook has a fat social network of 200 million users, so real-time search would be a logical feature add there. Facebook already failed to acquire Twitter; providing real-time search to keep traffic from going elsewhere is the next best thing.
Twitter is simple, lively and unfettered except when it comes to searching. I would also like to search Twitter content better. Summize seems to suck, so perhaps Google's microblog search service will help me do this.
I'm not sure I'd like this because I like going to Twitter. Google owns enough of my data and as much as I happily use Gmail, Docs, Reader and other apps, I do get bored of looking at Google pages all day.
In the brick-and-mortar world, I may shop every week at Stop & Shop, but I go to independent food markets for variety. Virtually speaking, I can't go to Google for everything. I mean, I could but I choose not to. It makes the Web a lonely place.
Twitter is one of my few comfortable refuges online. However Google, Twitter and Facebook suss out their real-time search challenges, I hope they do it on their own.
Perhaps newer, smaller startups will be the real-time search targets. Today, Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land detailed real-time search startups CrowdEye and Collecta, which he said join Topsy, OneRiot (check out the new Pulse Rank), Tweetmeme and Scoopler. Sterling adds:
"The segment is arguably the hottest in search and there is now a pack of startups that claim to offer "real-time search" capability with Google and Facebook circling overhead."
Let Google and Facebook descend on those smaller startups. I hope Twitter continues to stand alone, and I prefer it to improve in-house rather than run to the arms of Google or Facebook.
Am I alone here? What do you think?
