Google’s real-time search results have been live on several Google data centers for almost a month now (launched December 7th, 2009)  and the feedback from critics has been mixed. SEOmoz thinks Google real-time search will “fade away” in 2010. We are going to take a deeper look into the methodology of Google and it’s new real-time search results page.

So what is Google Real-Time Search?

Google has introduced the concept of populating their search results pages with dynamic streams of real-time content from around the web. Real-time content consists of blog and news postings, images and videos, as well as updates from popular social media platforms. In the world we have known up until now, Google search results pages (SERP) have consisted of sponsored listings (Google AdWords), and natural listings. In 2007 and 2008, Google also began integrating shopping results into their pages for queries of popular products, as displayed below.

However with the integration of real-time search, a query for a popular topic or trend would reveal a totally different search results page. For example a search query for the highly anticipated Google Nexus One cell phone, or tomorrow nights BCS National Championship game displays the following Google real-time search engine results page (RTSERP). As you will see in our short video below (watch in full-screen mode), Google has integrated news results (from popular blogs and media outlets), videos and images, as well as updates streaming live (which can be paused) from social media platforms powered by their recent partnerships with; Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, MySpace, Jaiku, and Identia.ca.

Google has also begun to integrate several other media types into their search results pages, making for a comprehensive search experience for it’s users . Here is a list of the media types you can expect to see in a given Google search results page in 2010.

• Live Updates (from sites such as Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed)
• Plus a larger emphasis on;
  • Video & Image results
  • News results (from Google News & Google Blog Search)
  • Local results (try it out, run a search for “health food”)
  • Shopping results (integrated with product images)
  • Academic & book results
  • Health results (try it out, run a search for “common cold”)
  • Brand Logos (try it out by running a search query for “Apple”)
  • Other popular searches that can be incorporated into iGoogle (For example run a search for “Miami Weather”, “GOOG” or “NFL”)

It is speculated as to what the algorithm consists of for Google’s real-time search. Amit Singhal, who runs Google’s Search Quality Group (ultimately his team is responsible for the Google search algorithm),  reported that their new technology enables them “to monitor more than a billion documents and process hundreds of millions of real-time changes each day.”

Questions and Concerns for Google Real-Time Search

• Will Google determine relevance of live updates?
• If relevance is considered, will Google rely on their new partners for this – and if so is there potential for bias?
  • Should frequency (i.e. quantity of updates), influence (i.e. number of followers on Twitter), exposure (i.e. quantity of keyword or shared link volume) be the main variables in their algorithm?
• What plan has Google implemented to combat attempted SPAMMING of the live updates?
• How can Google confirm the accuracy of information contained in  live updates?
• What affects will this have on my search marketing efforts?

Dying to learn more about Google Real-Time Search?

Watch these two promotional videos released by Google to discover even more about their real-time search integration. Happy searching!

Google promotional video and demonstration of their real-time search.

Google unveils real-time search and other search related technologies during the Google Search Event hosted at the Computer History Museum on December 7th, 2009.

Tags: SEO

Categories: News