Search Engine Developments | Google More Options | Twitter Real-Time Search

The web is in a distinctly transitional period at present, leaving us, the users, in a state of limbo, awaiting a frenzy of activity when all the major online players step their games up and launch us into the new-age Internet.

The underlying transformation which we've all got on our minds is that of real-time search, which was brought to us by Twitter, late last year/early this year. Whilst Twitter is the only major player to be making use of this development at present, we are seeing underlying movement from a number of other organisations - including both Digg and Google.

Whilst Digg Founder, Kevin Rose, recently touched upon the upcoming release of a new-improved Digg (one which looks to make use of real-time facilities), Google has already implemented its new facility...one which is somewhat disappointing as far as I'm concerned.

Whether it's seen as being THE answer to Twitter Search, it certainly hasn't made as much of a splash as one may have thought - in fact, the new facilities have somewhat stealthily made their way into use.

Having returned the SERPs following a query, Google now presents users with a 'Show Options' link, allowing them to further define the search criteria - picking out videos, forums or reviews, as well as a time-scale for the search to be based upon (ie., 'Recent Results', 'Past 24 hours', 'Past Week', 'Past Year').

My disappointment lies in the fact that despite this addition to the service, Google is still unable to provide real-time search, in it's truest sense.

Of course, we're all thankful for the ability Google has given us in order to find fresh content, but as a society, we're becoming more and more accustomed to having our requests dealt with as and when we want. We don't want to be waiting around for the information to be indexed by Google in the traditional sense, we want it to be accessible as soon as the news breaks - something which Twitter allows us to do.

It's reasonably clear to see that at the current time, Google does not have the ability to fulfil our real-time needs, else we'd probably have seen evidence of it by now. With this said, I'm lead to pose the question, 'Where does the blame lie?'. The fundamental answer may well be Google's current ranking process - something which has been amongst its strongest assets, until now.

The success of Google over recent years, has been down to its ranking algorithm and indexing process, which allows for search queries to be accurately understood, and for the results listed in the SERPs to be highly relevant. It's important for results to remain relevant, but it is essential for Google to step-up the pace indexing the web, in order to keep up with the consumer requirements, and maintain its title as being number one. How they do this, I'm not sure. But what I would say is that if it comes down to it, and a complete overhaul of the current indexing process is needed, then so be it. Real-time search is a radical development and is clearly the future. Radical developments more often than not require radical measures being taken in order to accommodate them.

It could be make or break time for Google.

Author - Tom

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