Google Real-Time Search A Good Thing? |Tulsa Web Results

Google Real-Time Search A Good Thing?

Popular may now be the new relevant!

We’ve always counted on Google to provide us with relevant search results, but have they made a mistake with “Live Search”? Launched Dec. 7th, this new feature will stream live results to users in response to queries for hot topics.

According to a Google blog post by Amit Singhal, 1 this new search feature is providing fresh content along with Google’s regular fare:

“Try searching for your favorite TV show, sporting event or the latest development on a recent government bill. Whether it’s an eyewitness tweet, a breaking news story or a fresh blog post, you can find it on Google right after it’s published on the web.”

Maybe This is Good, or Maybe Not

Today I searched for “Tiger Woods” and the live search results were, I thought, less than adequate. While the first three or four live posts were relative and posted from news organizations like the Associated Press, the remainder were tweets from individuals that soon degenerated to off-color jokes (“most expensive nine holes” and “he’s not a tiger, he’s a cheetah”), repeated tweets about Tiger’s loss of endorsements and multiple humorous confessional tweets that “I too have slept with Tiger”. IMHO, this sounds more like Hyde Park or the local pub than legitimate search results.

What does this do to Search?

You might say nothing. In fact, you might say this is just about Google, but then that may not be true. Google, as the granddaddy of search, is usually driving the bus when it comes to new search features.

In a report posted at PC World, 2 the release of this new feature may be an end-run around Bing’s new Twitter Search 3 which is still in beta and searches Twitter posts from a separate page. By offering live search results with its regular results, Google is showing the rest of the search engines how it’s done, and you know they’ll have to follow.

Refining Results Definitely in Order

Google has always provided relevant search results, but this new feature seems to be a departure from their normal strategy. Tweets are fine, and sometimes they scoop the news channels, but many times they turn out to be the jokes and flotsam of our digital age. Let’s hope Google continues to update the filtering on live search to bring more legitimacy to these topical search results and weed out the irrelevant.