Google Introduces Real Time Search
Finally an answer to the age old question, why do I have to wade through first page search results from two or even five years ago? Now, with the introduction of Google’s real time search, you don’t.
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.
