16WWW.IWR.CO.UK/OPINION
Online giants swept up by real-time search
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have all put real-time search at the top of their must-have agendas
A
series of announcements from al funding. Money talks. In a matter of may be a smarter other hand, is swallowing an aspirin.
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo days, both Google and Microsoft play than either The biggest web search forces are
have pushed real-time search announced that they would each Google’s or now aligned around real-time search.
centre-stage. “Real time” means that a incorporate tweets (Twitter messages) Microsoft’s. Some investors supporting the large
system updates information at the into their search results. But the Yahoo’s number of real-time search companies
same rate it receives information. Users announcements were vapourware. approach may be may well wonder what the outlook for
assume that all systems operate in real Neither firm has a full-bore real-time a coup for its those real-time search systems is.
time, but most don’t. Real time is easy search system in place in my opinion. new executive The commercial world of real time
to say but difficult (and expensive) to panther, Carol search is not likely to be affected by
deliver. Yet despite the technical hurdles, TIMELY RESULTS Bartz. First off, the actions of Google, Microsoft and
real-time services are becoming part of But Google and Microsoft have taken
Stephen
the digital generation’s online life. Text steps to provide more timely search
Arnold
Yahoo is invol- Yahoo. The sector’s constituents are
ved in a complex primarily consumer product compa-
messaging, tweets and Facebook results. Microsoft, for example, rolled mating dance with Microsoft. But as I nies; industrial-strength vendors of
updates are important because of their out its little-known Bing Tweets service write this, the firms’ web search tie-up real-time search are mostly unknown
immediacy. Length and grammar are (http://bingtweets.com), although the has lost momentum. With no cash outside of specialist circles. One exam-
less important than “nowness”. integration of Facebook and Twitter involved, I can’t see where the payoff ple is Fetch Technologies, which devel-
Trend hunters have been among the content with its mainstream Bing.com lies for Yahoo. With Microsoft’s Bing ops products based on sophisticated
earliest users of Collecta (www.collec- search results lies in the future. up and capturing marketing share, artificial intelligence methods. This
ta.com), Scoopler (www.scoopler.com), Not to be outdone, Twitter enticed Yahoo’s search system may now be less California-based company offers spe-
and Twitter (http://search.twitter.com) Google to embrace a similar deal. Like attractive to Microsoft. The delay may cialised tools to manipulate real-time
search. Among the companies sitting Microsoft, Google signed up to index- be a procedural glitch or it could signal market pricing for the financial servic-
on the real-time search sidelines have ing Facebook content. And like Micro- a rethinking of the Microsoft-Yahoo es industry and real-time inventory
been the Big Three in internet search: soft, Google’s announcement was relationship. Microsoft may be jockey- tools to determine the availability and
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. In vapourware. The freshest search results ing for a different agreement. prices at any point in time.
October each of these high-traffic on Google appear in its blog search The more severe impact of the web
services made clear that real-time service (http://blogsearch.google.com). TREADING CAREFULLY giants’ march into real-time search is
search was a priority – the Google also serves up fresh content in Second, Yahoo has signalled that it likely to be felt by the smaller real-time
Brobdingnagians had awoken. its Google Reader service, but you wants to remain in the web search search outfits. My view is that these
have to register. But in the real-time game. Instead of becoming an add-on companies will have to move fast to
POLICE TACTICS game, neither Google nor Microsoft to Bing, Yahoo wants to star in its own differentiate themselves and keep their
Real-time search or RTS is nothing has rolled out a fully integrated sys- search production. It knows that web revenue streams flowing. The shock-
new. Intelligence agencies and some tem. For me, “integrated” means a search can be expensive. Its bean waves triggered by the Big Three have
metropolitan police authorities have mix of content from various sources. counters understand that real-time already shattered some consumer-ori-
monitored message traffic for years. In By early 2010, the digital nation content may sport a big price tag. ented real-time search vendors. So far
the mid-1920s, the US Coast Guard states of Google and Microsoft will Yahoo’s approach with OneRiot may in 2009, two of the services I relied on
listened to radio transmissions from deliver integrated services. In my expe- prove to be a conservative one with have gone dark: Doggdot.us and
vessels suspected of running rum to rience, the operative phrase is “nation costs that are easier to stomach. Techfuga.com. And I expect to see
Prohibition-era entrepreneurs. If you states”. Google and Microsoft are on If you want a glimpse of the complex more churn yet due to the financial
have watched a police show on televi- course for a full-scale market clash. factors that can make real-time search downturn and the large number of me-
sion, you know that listening to tele- The interaction of these two compa- an expensive software development too services.
project, you may find the June 2009
white paper (comprehensively entitled SECOND LEAGUE
Despite the technical hurdles, real-time
The Inner Workings of a Real Time Google and Microsoft are becoming
Search Engine: Thoughts on Real Time more alike. Both will compete fiercely.
services are becoming part of the digital
Search by the Team at One Riot) use- Customers of their real-time search
generation’s online life
ful. You can find the document on services will benefit as both companies
Docstoc (http://tinyurl.com/qx2gmd). race to outgun one another. The bad
Third, Yahoo may be able to deploy news is that Yahoo, once the leader in
a real-time search service more quick- web information access, is likely to be
phone conversations is a standard nies will affect users worldwide. ly than Google or Microsoft. Instead relegated to search’s second division.
method of investigation. But what about Yahoo? Under new of tackling the service from ground Just as Ask has been marginalised, so
What’s different is that within the management and in a bit of a slump, it zero, Yahoo’s approach chops the Yahoo, like a gutter ball in 10-pin
last 24 months widespread public jumped into real-time search with coding job down to smaller, theoreti- bowling, may follow its trajectory.
access to real-time message traffic has OneRiot. If you have not explored cally more manageable tasks. Yahoo To close, real-time search is no
mushroomed. If you have not looked OneRiot, navigate to the site is integrating a fully functional, inte- longer a marginal service. Once it
at what flows through Twitter (a pop- (www.oneriot.com) and enter a popu- grated, real-time search system. becomes a component of the Google
ular text message broadcast system), lar query term such as “android” or Google and Microsoft are going to and Microsoft services, the opportuni-
go to TweetScan (www.tweetscan.com), “Premier League”. The system gives channel different real-time content ty space will shift. Some vendors will
which lets you plug in keywords. you the option of sorting the hits in streams into a seamless system. They adapt and find niches in which they
When I checked the system early in real-time order (most recent at the top are getting the technical equivalent of can survive.
November it indexed Laconia-based of the results list) or pulse (hottest or a tummy tuck. Even the most skilled That’s the good news for 2010. For
microblogging services and Twitter. most popular hits at the top of the plastic surgeons can have what looks real-time search firms unable to cope?
For an example of a commercial use of results list). The important point is like a routine procedure go into a Next year will be a real-time challenge
Laconia, navigate to http://army.twit.tv. that OneRiot delivers today an inte- potentially life-threatening van- big time. a73
In September, Twitter reported that grated real-time search service. It is comycin-resistant Enterococcus infec- Stephen Arnold is an
it had raised about $100m in addition- not vapourware, so Yahoo’s approach tion. Zap. Trouble. Yahoo, on the independent consultant
INFORMATION WORLD REVIEW DECMEBER 2009/JANUARY 2010 WWW.IWR.CO.UK
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