Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) launched its realtime search product saying, “we’re making our most significant enhancements to date, giving real-time information its own home and more powerful tools to help you find what you need.” Google also said that “we’ve added a conversations view, making it easy to follow a discussion on the real-time web.”
The product is an odd mix of news about search terms entered into the “realtime” box and information and conversations from Twitter and other sites such as Facebook. It relies more heavily on Twitter than anything else. A search of the key word “Microsoft” shows Google News listing and Twitter posts that are updated every few seconds. The term “Brett Favre” shows no headlines and very few Tweets. Users can set the search box on “everything” and get a mix of social media posts and traditional Google results on a subject
Google “realtime” seems to have very few practical applications unlike other free Google services like Maps, Gmail, and Images. It is an example of yet another experiment to come out of the search company. In this case, it is hard to see that it will find much of a home on the internet.
Who needs to see every tweet on Lindsay Lohan?
Douglas A. McIntyre
Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.
Latest from 24/7
