Bing and Google search deals for Facebook and Twitter are getting quite a bit of attention and commentary. What’s the value of real time search? It’s largely about being aware of global patterns of interest – a sort of zeitgeist or attentional focus (some have called it consciousness, but that seems silly – knowing what many people are talking about is hardly “consciousness”. Perhaps awareness is a better term):
Now that Google and Bing are getting the firehose, it could have a big impact on search results. For the search engines, the firehose is much more valuable than any single Tweet. They can index it and sift it, looking for patterns and spikes in keywords and shared links to get a better sense of what people across the Web are paying attention to at any given moment. This data can then be folded back into regular search results, even if the top result isn’t a Tweet.
Somewhat related, I just came across Cluuz – a people search tool. The results are fairly accurate – but the images displaying network connections are still a bit basic.
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