Recently there has been a lot of talk about real time search. But what is real time search and what makes it different from the search we have come accustom to? Well its very simple, real time search is when search results are found from micro blogging, social media, and many other web posts to supply you with the most up to date information literally seconds after it has been published. However, with real time search comes issues like relevance of results. Unlike search, where the results are mostly show in accordance to their relevance, with real time search there are no guarantees as to what shows up. But for most people, getting the most up to date buzz on a hot topic is very appealing even if the results are not quite what you were expecting.
Here are a few real time search engines that have gotten a fair bit of attention lately:
OneRiot scans Twitter and Digg to give real time search results. It shows you the trending topics as they develop keeping you in the loop of the goings on in these two popular social sites. Also, it shows you the most shared posts on Twitter, to let you know what everyone is talking about.
Tweetmeme searches Twitter for links that best suit your search. The results are ranked in tweet popularity and you can define your search by the hour, day and week, depending on how fresh you want your results.
FriendFeed searches though all of your friends posts from different sites. This is quite unique as it only gives results from people you are connected with. However, it may be more opinion driven results rather than factual. But it gives you a good insight into your friends activities.
Scoopler mixes live tweets and popular content in the results. This real time search engine actually shows the tweets as they are being posted giving you a constant stream of new information. Also the sites content is laid out coherently making it user friendly and a pleasant interface to use.
Social Mention is great for keeping an eye on who is talking about your brand or company. It searches through social media to supply you with results that are up to date and shows you what sentiment the mentions are, such as positive or negative. It also tells you the top keywords your brand or company is being found for.
Collecta monitors the update streams of news sites, popular blogs and social media sites including Flickr to give you search results that are up to the minute.
If you are wanting to search the web and get the freshest buzz on what’s going on, what’s being said, and what’s hot this minute, real time search is definately for you. Try these site out to see what ones best suit your needs. If you know of any other effective real time search engines then let us know.
