Ever learn of a great party that you weren’t invited to?
That’s how Google must feel about the conversations happening inside Twitter every minute of every day. It’s a closed party and Google Search bots can’t see the conversation.
How we talk about Search
When people talk about looking something up on the Internet they often ask, “Did you Google it?”
In the near future (aka near now), people will be asking, “Did you Twitter it?”
The difference is significant.
Search.Twitter is a human powered search engine. It now appears right there on the home page of Twitter, along with trends which indicates the words and phrases people are talking about.
Twitter search tells users what people are talking about Now. When hot new Web content reaches Twitter, that content spreads through links that are posted by users and shared with their audience. As more and more people link to the content and talk about it, it rises in Twitter Trends.
The words and phrases available to Search.Twitter.com are relevant to NOW.
Mashable reports now that Twitter is beginning to index these links, which will provide real time search value of the links – not just the words in the 140 character tweets. Twitter search will be driven by user-generated linking.
The problem for Google
Google search is algorithm driven (a mathematical formula looking primarily at links) – a process which takes time and ignores real time human ranking of content. Blog posts, news pages, and other Web sites need to see the content, then link to it to add credibility/value scoring of the content to produce a high ranking. This takes time.
Twitter posts are largely invisible to Google’s search engine.
The Search.Now Advertising Bonanza
Once the Search.Twitter.com results page starts showing the links, instead of just the tweets, the advertising bonanza for Twitter will be realized. Twitter, much like Google, will shortly be able to roll out a paid placement search model for Real Time Search. This will surely move advertising revenue away from Google.
Where do you want your search results coming from?
- a computer algorithm or a community?
- a few weeks ago, or a few minutes ago?
Relative Search:
The difference between Google and Twitter might be summed up in this relationship:
Google : “Search”
as
Search.Twitter.com : “Search NOW”
Links:
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Great point about Twitter search and how it differs from Google search. Another interesting point in this post is that Twitter search is potentially getting a reputation ranking system too – how cool is that?!
Nice summary of the difference between these two platforms, Todd. I think it goes back to your purpose for searching. If you want a pulse on your customers, you need the real-time updates that Twitter provides.
However, for more substantial resource-type content I still prefer an algorithm like Google’s. Yes, it takes a few weeks to perform the content value scoring, but it seems that is necessary for determining which content is more relevant & useful.
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