07/12/2009
Google has moved to head off some of the threat from young rivals such as Twitter and Facebook by announcing plans to prominently display results from social media sites in its search pages.
The new development which the Californian technology giant dubs “Real Time Search” aims to bring users more up-to-date information as they scour the web for information. Over the next few days anybody searching online using Google will see their traditional search results augmented by a string of constantly updating messages drawn from social networks, news sites and blogs.
The move is part of a wider push to make Google’s search index even faster and more up-to-date as people increasingly use services like Twitter to transmit information about events as they happen.
Google said that with more information being put on the web every day, it was vital that the company learned how to give users the most relevant results – and as quickly as possible.
Information is being posted at a pace we have never seen before and in this information rich environment seconds matter.
As well as watching for developments on news sites Google is working closely with Twitter, Facebook and MySpace to include updates from their users.
Some critics have suggested that websites like Facebook and Twitter could eventually rival Google thanks to their ability to tap into millions of public messages being sent constantly between individuals. That threat comes in addition to more traditional search engines like Microsoft’s Bing.com, which has threatened to forge exclusive deals with some content providers as a way to claw back market share.
Instead Google has acted to bring those services into the fold.
"There’s no doubt that it’s good to have" said Polly Pospyelova fuse8's Search Engine Specialist from the Leeds SEO team. "Everyone trusts and relies on Google for what it does best but imagine the frustration when there’s a natural disaster or terrorist threat and people are instead turning to Twitter for confirmation faster than traditional news sources that Google can provide".
The company also used the event to unveil a number of other technologically significant advances.
Google showcased a forthcoming translation product which allows users to speak any phrase into a mobile phone and then translate it almost instantly into various languages.
The resulting phrase could then be spoken back by Google through the phone’s speaker, potentially allowing travellers to use any high-end handset as a universal translation device. The first elements of the software should be available to the public in the first quarter of 2010.
The company said such technologies were possible thanks to improvements in speed and power but added that there were more plans coming soon – and that the ultimate goal was to make searching for information as fast as physically possible.
Polly’s final comments “Watch this space as the world gets smaller and travel between places, metaphorically speaking at least, gets faster and easier”.