Google's Real-time Search: What does it mean for small businesses?

I have had a lot to say about real-time search in previous blog postings. I have highlighted both positive and negative issues related with real-time search. I wanted to share my opinions on how I see real-time search affecting small businesses.

Increase The Use of Social Media

With real-time search, small businesses will have even more need to take advantage of social media. If real-time search becomes the search medium of choice of most Internet users, small business will need to send tweets, status updates. Any business who does not do this will be at a disadvantage over their competitors that do.

Create Quality Content

Real-time search provides a way for businesses to be seen regularly on the first page of Google if they use SEO keywords from the trending topics on Twitter, or a current hot issue. Small business will need to increase the amount of content they create for their website, one way to do this would be to create a blog. Content created for this purpose would need to be quality content and needs to say something new or it could prove detrimental if people see that you are constantly submitting content of little value.

Since there is so much information being moved through the real-time feed you may have only a few minutes or seconds to catch someones attention, writing interesting headlines will be very important.

Increase Web Presence

Real-time search may just bring even more advertising to the Internet as people search for the latest relevant information to stay informed. Small businesses will need to increase their web presence as more people use real-time search to increase their visibility among their customer base.

Google's Real-time Search: Be informed in no time, or at least very little time.

In a recent post I gave my opinion about the problems I see with real-time search. I do concede that Google probably is aware of all my concerns surrounding real-time search and that they probably feel the benefits it provides outweigh the problems it may cause, and so do I.

In my previous posting on this issue I claimed that a lot of the information coming through the real-time feed does not hold a lot of relevance in that some of it either was either not all that credible, or was simply capitalizing on a particular hot topic on Twitter, as well as all the random chatter from Twitter users. I admit that this may particularly have been the case because I used Tiger Woods as my search example. Using Tiger, or any celebrity or that matter, would have had the same results through a real-time search as what I found.

The Relevance Test

For this article I took a look at another issue that has a lot of conversation surrounding it; Healthcare Reform.

With this topic, as may be expected there were a lot more links to known news sites and less twitter banter about the topic. I found several interesting articles within a matter of minutes, seconds for some, of their posting.

Here are three headlines I found while searching, two of which I found to be very interesting and informative, the third supports my earlier blog argument about the problems of real-time search relevancy, in this case however I do not fault the author of the article.

CNBC Stock Blog — 4 Stocks to Benefit From Health Care Reform ...

Sanders to introduce amendment stripping 'Cadillac' tax from ...

Tiger Woods and the thorny matter of racial identity

The first two articles one comes from a reputable news source, and the other from a political blog both were good examples of how real-time search can increase the speed in which we are informed.

In the third example this article was in the real-time feed because he mentions health care reform in the first few lines of the opening paragraph to help emphasis his point about Tiger Woods. The author may be trying use this as a keyword to drive traffic or he may not. I only found health care reform used only the one time in the article.

More Relevant Information

The speed in which relevant information, as was the information I found in my first two examples, as well as exposure to numerous new sources is what makes real-time search great. The increased speed of how information is delivered could lead to an increase of informed conversation about important issues.

Google's real-time search still has some bug's but overall provides a valuable resource to web surfers.

Google's real-time Search: Future of Search or Useless Information Overload? Part 2

In my previous blog posting I pointed out a few problems I see with real-time search. This is a continuation of that post.

Irrelevant Information
The articles associated with the other two headlines I mentioned above have nothing to do with the news surrounding Tiger Woods and appear to be taking advantage of his current popularity in the media and on Twitterto drive readers to their articles. If the scandal surrounding Tiger Woods was not currently happening, these articles would likely not have been released at this time. This provides a problem for people who are trying to find relevant information about Tiger Woods.

Anyone can go on Twitter and see what the trending topics are and then create an article using the keywords of that topic without it having any real relevance to the discussion. These types of articles end up cluttering the stream with information that is irrelevant to the primary reason someone is searching for a particular topic. I see this as a problem in that a hot topic on Twitter will be driving the content that is being created for the web.


The Tiger Woods Blog Experiment
As an experiment, we even created a blog about “The Top 3 reasons Tiger Woods should not design your website” and sent out a tweet. Interestingly enough, we did not see it come up in the real-time stream, which led to questions about how Google determines what is real-time worthy and what is not, or how it determines who is relevant enough to actually quote as a real time source. We speculated that it may be looking for other keywords that are associated with the Tiger Woods scandal, but at the same time, several Twitter jokes about Tiger showed up in the stream that did not seem to contain any other keywords.

It did not take long for us to get a “WTF?” comment on our blog for the same reasons I've discussed about how people take advantage of a current hot topic and don't offer any relevant content.

One Bright Spot
I must be honest and say that I personally have not been following the Tiger Woods scandal and was able to learn through the real-time search that as a result of all of this mess he is losing some of his endorsements, which in my opinion is somewhat newsworthy. Look for my post on the positive applications that real-time search provides within the next few days.

By Google providing information in real-time, it becomes the searchers' responsibility to filter out all the useless information—and misinformation—that comes through the real-time feed in order to find what they are truly looking for. We have always had to do this with information on the Internet, but not to this degree.

Through Google's regular search algorithm, high-ranking sites are determined based on quality content. With information being provided at such a rapid pace, it seems it would be almost impossible to be able to determine the quality and relevancy of all the content that comes through its real-time search results, as my examples also suggested. I know real-time search is still in its infancy, but until some improvements are made, it is very likely that news junkies and gossip hounds may be the only ones who regularly use it. The rest of us will quickly find better ways to spend our time online.

Why you should get a Facebook and Twitter account even if you hate them.

First off, if you do not have a Facebook or Twitter account, I know you know someone who does. You may not understand why it is important to know where your friend Bob went out for dinner, or that your old college roommate just bought a new car. You may look at all the tweets and status updates as useless information overload, but you may want to reconsider.

Sure, most of the information communicated in this manner comes across as trivial and unimportant, and truth be told, most of it is. The important factor is how it is communicated. Facebook status updates and tweets happen very quickly, and with even a relatively small network of followers and friends, they can reach a large amount of people in a manner of seconds. Interesting tweets are often retweeted and can increase the amount of people that see your tweet significantly.

Search engines, like Google and Bing, in an effort to increase the relevancy of the information they provide are now providing real-time searches by including feeds from Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sources. Google is even using the information from individuals' own online social circles to help provide more relevant, personalized search information. That means when you are searching for a new restaurant to try out, where your Facebook friend Bob ate dinner last night suddenly becomes a bit more relevant.

So why should your small business get Facebook and Twitter accounts?

1) Both services are free—you will probably not find cheaper advertising than through social media other than word of mouth, of course. It does take time to maintain your accounts and to get your initial message out to the masses as well as build an online network, but once you do get the message out, it can quickly turn into word of mouth as your message is passed on to the friends of people who find your message to be important or interesting.

2) The speed at which you are able to reach your customer base. As soon as you post your tweet, it goes directly to your friends and followers. By using a services like bit.ly, which helps you create short links that work with Twitters' 140-character posting limit, you can see how many people are clicking on your links. Often, you can even see immediate responses after sending out your tweet.

3) Build relationship with your clients and customers. One of the great aspects of social media is the increased communication between your business and your clients and customers. They can leave comments and feedback on your Facebook page or blog. Having increased communication and interaction with your customers will help you better know the needs of your customer base.

These are only a few of the benefits of using social media. Sure you may have to sort through a lot of trivial status updates and tweets from your friends and followers, but with the benefits of low-cost advertising, speed of delivery, and the ability to build relationships with your clients and customers, you would be at a disadvantage over your competitors if you opt to not use it.