Google’s previous attempt wasn’t bad. By using Google Search Options and choosing from latest, past hour, past 24 hours, past week, past year, or even your own specific date range, your own individualized custom search results were certainly a major improvement over the sometimes old and obsolete results we were used to before the search options features.

Taking real time search to actually be real time search was still another story, at least until now with new search enhancements announced on the Google blog Monday Dec. 7th.

The first notable real time improvement comes on Google Trends. When you go to Google Trends now, you’ll find a new column called “Hot Topics.” To get real time results, simply click one of the topics in the list or enter your own in the search box at the bottom. Since Tiger Woods seems to be the number one “Hot Topic” of the moment, why not click on Tiger? Not only do you get up to the second results, but even those will update within seconds or at least as fast as there are new blog posts or microblog updates, as Google has partnered with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Friend Feed, Jaiku, and Identi.ca to keep its updates fresh.

To try out the “More Hot Topics” custom search box I entered the phrase, real time search, and, of course, new results appeared as soon as they became available. In the event the results come faster than you can read them, Google also gives you the option to stop them by simply clicking the “Stop Updating” link.

Because the average searcher probably doesn’t know that Google Trends even exists, the real time search feature has been added to the search results on the main Google.com page. Search any current topic on the main Google page,for example, Tiger Woods, and a dynamic box comes up that displays the latest results along with immediate updates,again, as soon as they become available. If you search Tiger Woods latest or Tiger Woods latest updates, the box appears higher up on the search results page.

While the developer preview site has already been taken down, rumors on Twitter say you can now preview Caffeine by going to http://216.239.59.103 and searching. When you search the same key phrase on the main Google, however, the results will probably be pretty much the same. This is in line with expectations, as it’s widely assumed that search results for your own website will not be dramatically different, even after Caffeine is rolled out at all of the Google data centers. This, of course, further assumes, that your site is properly optimized with keyword based title tags, descriptions, and H1 tags, is updated on a regular basis with relevant content related to your business, and is still adding quality back links. At this point the main SEO factor that will be different seems to be site speed.

To keep up with what people are saying about Caffeine, all you have to do is go to Twitter and search Google Caffeine. Stands to reason, at least to me, that there will be more search results without the hashtag. The following are the top ten most interesting Google Caffeine tweets (in no particular order) I was able to find this morning:

mmcdonald Google’s Matt Cutts on Site Speed and the CaffeineUpdate http://ff.im/-bBk3k

savagepaul Compare Google and new sandbox version GoogleCaffeine: www.comparecaffeine.com/
Apparently there’s even a comparison tool that compares Google with Google Caffeine results.

copywriterinuae #Google #Caffeine is on. Meaning faster sites will rank higher. It’s time to invest in quality hosting NOW! | #SEOtip

natfinn should Google be a little concerned that a googlesearch for “google caffeine” doesn’t return a google.com listing in the #1 spot?

gavoweb Optimizing for Google Caffeine http://ff.im/-bBIhm

memocorea Rumor mill has it that Google Caffeine is either http://216.239.59.103/ or http://66.102.7.18/

kathydragon Google Search Results About to Get a Dose of Caffeine | WebProNews http://twe.ly/aHb #webpronews #search #google #googlesearch

Rob__Burns What are you “tracking” on Twitter? Right now, I’m tracking Google Caffeine and what it’s going to mean for you in the search engines…

KarlOrtenburg Google has hinted it will soon launch Caffeine, its new search engine that is designed to offer faster and more relevant results.

seob0t Google Caffeine gives SEOs the Jitters http://ow.ly/162iow

While today we would use a different tool for each different communication method, Google Wave combines email, instant messaging, blogs, text, photos, gadgets, videos and more into a single communication and collaboration tool.

Google Wave on the official Google blog

Google Wave Developer Preview Video

As always with Google, there’s a video and if you check out the first half hour, you’ll have a really good idea of exactly what Google Wave is and how it works. The good news is that unlike many other product demo videos, this one will keep your interest, especially through the first half hour.

The Complete Guide to Google Wave

Simply click on a chapter to read it online free.

Mashable’s early Google Wave Guide, and Game Changing Features.

As the following forms are still online, I’m assuming they still work, but certainly not without long waits:

Google Wave Invitation form for developers

Google Wave Invitation form for non-developers

Sign up for Google Wave access for your website or blog

Sign up to be notified when Google Wave is officially launched as a public product

And finally, even though this officially makes eleven, sign up for Google Wave Google Alerts.

Google Social Search finds your social circle in three ways: your public Google profile, your Google RSS blog subscriptions, and your Google Chat contacts. So it’s obviously more important now than ever before to create a Google Profile and use Google Reader for your RSS blog subscriptions. I’ve been using Pageflakes as my RSS reader, because the widgets are more organized and look better than in Google Reader. I do, however, have a Google Reader account that I set up a while ago and fully intend to update it as soon as time permits. Speaking of time, although I have no idea how long it will take, but just as is seems that by consolidating social media into one central location, Google Social Search will eventually take it over, it also implies the end of the independent RSS Readers, for example, Pageflakes and Netvibes.

Thankfully, your Google Chat contacts are never made public in social search results, so it would seem that using Google Chat would be less important than the other aforementioned Google services. It’s also important to note where personalization comes into the picture. Only you are able to see the social search results based on your social circle, extended social circle, (friends of friends) and their content in your social search results. In other words, everyone’s social search results will be different, unique, and therefore, personalized.

In a previous post, “Twitter Poll: When Did You Start Using Google Search Options,” I raised the question, how do “regular” people, meaning people not in the business of SEO even know about Google Search Options or where to find them. The same question holds true for Google Social Search. The answer is through blog posts such as Danny Sullivan’s, “Google Social Search Launches,” and hopefully this one as well. For now Google Social Search results may be found in Google Search Options that appear in the left margin when you click the Search Options link on any Google search results page.

And finally, you will not be able to see Social Search in your search options unless you sign up for it first with Google.

To learn more about Google Social Search, check out the Matt Cutts How Google Social Search Works video.

After the first thirty days which are free, there is a fixed monthly charge based on the popularity of your business category. Unlike Google Adwords there’s no bidding or keyword management involved. Essentially Google does it all for you including creating the ad copy.

Advanced reporting and tracking features included in Google Local Listing Ads include number of calls, clicks to your ad, requests for driving directions, and clicks to your info window on Google Maps. There’s even a free call tracking feature that announces each customer call that’s forwarded by Google.

To qualify for Google Local Listing Ads businesses are required to verify their free listing in Google Local Business Center. Unfortunately, however, these ads are currently available only in San Francisco and San Diego. For everywhere else there’s a form to fill out and submit for Google Local Listing Ads availability in your area as well as updates on other Google products and services. As always there’s already a YouTube video for Google Local Listing Ads.

This week they added three new search options:

• Visited pages
• Past hour
• Fewer shopping sites

Even though Google made it surprisingly easy to use search options, as explained in the YouTube video, Google Search Options, the question is does the average web user know about them, use them, or even know how to use them?

Most seo, social media, and web design professionals have already read about Google search options on sites such as Mashable, Search Engine Land, or the Google blog and are already using them. But what about the average web user?

I’ve created an anonymous Twitter poll to establish when people started using Google search options or feel free to comment.