Is The Future Of Search Real-time?

Is there any greater buzz right now when it comes to Search Engines then the promise of real-time search? Over the past couple of weeks I have had numerous conversations revolving around the possibilities brought on by Twitter search and the promise of real-time. But, is it really the future of search? Depends on who you ask. I for one see real-time search as being a huge part of where search engines are heading in the not so distant future. However, right now, I am seeing three major issues with any search engine that pushes their “real-time” search results.

• Results
• Relevancy
• Spam

In my opinion the true “Google Killer” will be a hybrid of both real-time and standard “cached” search results. Searching for a current topic like “Swine Flu” you want the most recent results to see what is going on at that very moment and content offering in-depth / credible information.Creating a hybrid search engine offers the best of both worlds and limitless possibilities. Take for example a standard e-commerce query -  a user searches for a product  and the results that comes back are for sites that are not only  selling /  reviewing that product but also real-time results for active coupons that have just been posted. Same thing for news or anything related to current events – real-time results for what is going on at that very moment and standard results for more in-depth information. Now all of a sudden real-time search results are creating more value in the SERP, which is true game changer.

So is the future of search real-time? Yes. But with some modifications…

Tagged as: Google, Real-Time Search, Search Engines, Twitter