The data collected on Twitter may create interesting new opportunities for search engines, and that's why the major search engines, including Google, Yahoo and Bing, have done deals to gain access to Twitter's firehose.
But applying Twitter data to search in a meaningful way has proven to be a bit tough. Although there's the potential to use Twitter data as a signal for traditional SERPs, or to display 'real-time' results within the SERPS, search engines are also interested in providing consumers with search experiences explicitly built around real-time information.
Case in point: Microsoft's Bing, which a couple of months ago launched Bing Social. Billing it as "the first search experience" based around the Twitter and Facebook firehoses, Bing Social is essentially, in part, a dedicated Twitter search engine. But, as I've pointed out, it's not really all that useful.
So one might assume that Google would take a cue from Bing and know how not to build a real-time search offering. Unfortunately, that's not the case.
Yesterday, Google announced the launch of Google Realtime Search to the world, and it feels a lot like Bing Social. Realtime Search is essentially Google search for tweets. The results page listing the latest tweets is almost a mirror image of Bing Social's, which is nothing to write home about. The primary problem: there's a lot of chaff, and it appears that both Bing Social and Google Realtime Search have forgotten that it's all about the wheat.
To be sure, there are a few useful features. There's a simple graph showing the volume of tweets for a particular search phrase. There's also the ability to set up Google alerts based on a real-time search, to view a "full conversation" and to filter tweets geographically.
But even though these might impress some users, overall, the overall search experience is unlikely to make Google Realtime Search a mainstream hit. There's just not enough substance or quality.
Ironically, Realtime Search might make for a decent poor man's reputation monitoring tool. Tweet volume graphs, alerts and geographic filters will probably be far more interesting to social media managers, business owners and others who are using social media for more than casual use than they will be to the average consumer.
From this perspective, it might be worthwhile for search engines to rethink how they're positioning their real-time search products. Right now, they fall far short as consumer-oriented products, which is why targeting them at the consumer audience may be ill-conceived. They can't succeed in that market, but they could serve as the foundation for some real-time oriented business tools. The first search engine to figure out that the target audience isn't always the consumer will win in this space.
Patricio Robles is a tech reporter at Econsultancy. Follow him on Twitter.
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CEO and Executive Chairman at PAY ON RESULTS SEO, PPC & CRO from Strategy Internet Marketing
10:52AM on 27th August 2010
Maybe search and social media shouldn't be combined in one set of results? Maybe in future we will see web search and social media search as different things?
11:25AM on 27th August 2010
You're not saying what you'd like to see - 'substance, quality, wheat from chaff' doesn't really get to what you perceive as the problem. Is it simply scrolling all tweets on a given subject based on the timeline, inclusive of spam and from accounts with no authority? I'm not sure it's quite that basic, there is a reputation management algorithm in place, maybe just not stringent enough for your tastes? Maybe the only way to combat this is by manual filters e.g. 'do not show tweets from users who are less/more followers... etc etc'
11:30AM on 27th August 2010
Social media search is useful because it can provide great insights into PR, Marketing and Business Strategy.
Although what they're offering is just scratching the the surface of what is possible to analyse with all the data. Although for those with nil budget, its better than nothing.
More sophisitcated in depth tools also offer real time twitter results too, but they are offering novel analysis in context, and trending possiblities.
See this Semantic Web review for the most cutting edge offerings http://tinyurl.com/2wub55h
11:42AM on 27th August 2010
I think we tend to judge things way to0 early. You never know what people might start liking since people are unpredictable. I had personally laughed off twitter when I first read about its concept (I think it was in Reader's Digest) but now I don't need to say anything about that.
That said, Google is having some tough luck lately with its new "innovative" offerings and it is falling flat on its face more often than usual. But hey, that's how you impove: By failing. Maybe in time, this article might feature in one of those "archived articles that got it completely wrong" category :D.
11:50PM on 27th August 2010
This is a good post. Check out TipTop http://FeelTipTop.com to see how real-time search can be effective.
Publisher at 2N Media Ltd - ModernSelling.com
2:12PM on 30th August 2010
(I think someone’s “stock” might be on the way to rock bottom!)
Nice one Patricio – as ever.
I also had a brief look around your stuff Jayne and, to me, it does look like the best application of all this will be in the area Patricio is pointing at, namely for B2B people to find out where the current conversations are.
These conversations come from “Buyers 2.0”, as represented by this report on the actual activities of the real people behind 503 UK business purchases with an average value of £350K (and into the £millions) up to March 2010…
http://www.b2bm.biz/Features/BUYERSPHERE-REPORT-Where-have-all-the-buyers-gone/
…with a highlight being that they spent an average of 25 hours online, per month, as opposed to 12 hours offline.
The kicker though is that once you have managed to spot where the action is, you won’t want to send in a piece of marketing collateral, you’ll want to have a “Sales 2.0” real person in your employ – to have them also go and read, digest, understand, contextualise AND respond and engage (connect with the participants), in the live conversation, right there and then – just like this. But not so much via some marketing analysis report a month later, saying “There was a conversation about….”.
And, to make that work, you need to train the sales person, like these IBM Bloggers…
http://www.emarketer.com/blog/index.php/case-study-ibm-drives-millions-dollars-worth-sales-leads-social-media/
…or this American Association of Inside Sales Professionals…
http://www.aa-isp.org/index2.php
…(should it ever manage to morph over here) what these tools are all about, and how to use them. (imho)
Kind regards - Neil
(Google Wave also seems to have morphed into Salesforce.com/Chatter, by the way, so all is not lost on the “collaborative workspace” front – but again, maybe more of a B2B than consumer option).