Google Doesn't Twitter, But It Will Search It
Doing what some say it does best, it looks like Google is going to start piggybacking on Twitter, and other micro-blogging services, by introducing real-time search, probably incorporated into the core service itself. This news shouldn’t exactly have any of us falling off our chairs; Google, along with the rest of us, has been nursing a severe Twitter obsession lately, and using its own search specialty to get in the game is the obvious next step.
To me, search for micro-blogging sites will get interesting when, and if, Google starts to make money off of real-time search. Of course, it could offer such a service and just keep doing what it’s been dong: offering up sponsored links around real-time search. But I keep wondering how the ante could be upped. How quickly would advertisers be able to turn around a quick search campaign, based on real-time interest in a particular topic? And how valuable would those ads be compared to the usual ads that run on Google?
For now, you can bet that Google isn’t all that concerned with these questions, but instead trying to make sure that it continue to be the most comprehensive search tool available. To that end, it has to incorporate real-time search into its offering. Maybe, along the way, it will come upon real-time search’s business model as well.
Previous coverage of real-time search at BNET Media:
Catharine P. Taylor has been covering digital media and advertising for almost 15 years and is a frequent speaker at conferences about media and advertising. She posts daily to BNET Media, writes the weekly Social Media Insider column for Mediapost and also has her own advertising blog, Adverganza.com. Follow her on Twitter or subscribe to the BNET Media Twitter feed.
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