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Update: 
Mark Carey has created a script using Greasemonkey that allows users to put Twitter Search Results directly in Google Results. He shares the following screenshot:
Original Article:
Twitter is finally integrating search into its homepage. Search and Trends have been placed into the signed-in homepages of a limited set of accounts for beta testing.
Perhaps the point that we should be focusing on is how important searching Twitter and conversations in general are going to become. There is no question that conversations are gaining a lot of importance on the web, whether that be through Twitter, Facebook, blogs or anything else. People want to know what is going on in the real-time part of the web.
Naturally that leads to questions about Google. With said importance of the real-time web, the search engine leader is likely going to want to get on board this train in one way or another. This is a topic that has been brought up a lot recently by a number of bloggers. Robert Scoble suggested that this kind of real-time search could even be a threat to Google search, particularly if Facebook got into the mix with its huge number of users.
Danny Sullivan touched on the real-time search subject in an interview with our own Abby Johnson at the recent SMX West Show. He says this is an opportunity search engines could take advantage of (when speaking about ways that search engines could improve in general). WhosTalkin.com is already doing some interesting things in this space.
I’m not sure if Google’s feeling threatened by the concept, but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised to see Google eventually offer a conversational-search feature of its own. How Google would do this is another question all together, because Twitter may have already reached critical mass with real-time communication. One thing is certain, real-time discussion search is going to continue to grow in importance.
Real-time discussion search has a lot of potential for monetization as well. You know full well how Google would do it (AdWords if I have to say it). You also know that Facebook has been a lot more interested in monetization strategies lately, and Twitter has even promised that its latest round of funding will bring about revenue models. Very interesting.
As for Twitter’s Search itself, only accounts that choose to be publicly accessible are included in Twitter search results. That is apparently over 90% of Twitter users anyway though. No word yet on when the feature will become available to everyone.
It’s not unique enough for Twitter to use “Search Now” maybe something like “Find Twits” … LOL
I just love all the nicknames surrounding Twitter!
Follow me at http://www.twitter.com/snerdey
I’m typically on Twitter to socially market may safety and security web site as well as raise awareness for it’s products through interaction with my followers, so this is great news. I like finding people who feel vulnerable or threatened in some way or simply those who want to increase their safety and security level. Thanks, Chris, for this information.
I want to be in the beta program! even though I am the closest thing to an 800 lb gorilla in my small niche, I guess twitter doesn’t link my “Smokieshiker” account enough to grant me betaship.
I do use Twellow and recommend it, but I don’t use it often enough.
Wish they can build that search into Twitter Fox too.
How does this challenge google? It is only searching some of Twitter’s site.
If they wanted to challenge google, pick some lesser known search engine like cull and put that on its front page for searching the web.
If we could only search people’s thoughts before they commit them to 140 chars!
Another excellent idea to improve Twitter’s quality.
i dont think they will be a threat to google
Someday they have to tie in their search features or partner up.
I think it’s great that Twitter is finally working on that homepage. I find them invaluable & have changed the way I watch events on tv like SuperBowl, Daytona & award shows because I pull up tweet streams to view all the comments from my contacts.
Twitter created a new way to be in touch with 1,000′s simultaneously with common interests. Can’t wait to see what comes next.
Maybe i am thick but I still don’t get how a site’s internal search could affect big G’s plans to index the whole universe?
It is not internal search that would impact Google, but the possibility that real-time communication search could become an important part of search. What people are talking about now versus what what text was on websites 30 days or more ago.
I wonder why so late Twitter is developing this new feature of search.
Couldn’t they have been more fast?
very good, lets try it
I’m sure Google has some interest in this concept, but we all must be reminded that although “G” is a search engine, its main goal is to make money from advertising. With this in mind, “G” may not consider this a
worthwhile venture. But if there is money in it for them, them be jumping in on it.
I think there is plenty of ad opportunity there.
“Recent funding … revenue models”
Everything free will always be paid for one way or another and that’s fine with me but hope it does not become over come with ad’s.
I don’t think Google is threatened at all as they’re about to get a whole new niche to target AdWords. I’m sure they’ve been preparing for many like this and others as they are rather focused on the future of the web.
Which came 1st .. Google or The Web?
Some really do not know the answer to this! Just ask sometimes at your favorite pub or in conversation. Answers are across the board.
Did we all blow a gasket and forget what search is used for? It is to find information and 140 characters about how I woke up today and thought I would invent nuclear fuzees, is not what one would call “information”
Googles’ Mission Statement is not likely to be altered to fit some pundits ideas of what Twitter search might do…..
Isn’t the Google Blog Search Feature an example of real-time search? There shouldn’t be any problem with it. Real-Time search is already part of google.. which is the blog search.
Maybe I just don’t get it.
Searching Twitter or any other social site in real time may be interesting of course.
That’s a whole other boll game than searching the web, for stored information. It requires spidering the web for said information, sorting, storing and tagging it in big databases, to make any sense.
At this point in time it isn’t possible to search the whole web in real time, and I doubt that will be the case for a very long time
As I understand it, the web is growing faster than it may be seached.
My conclusion would be, that two good things, like real time search of a limited number of social discussion sites, and the search for spidered, evaluated and stored information, don’t compete.
Cheers!
Google is certainly moving in this direction. They already acquired Jaiku (http://jaiku.com/help/google) back in late 2007. Since then they’ve been migrating it to Google Apps. And they just announced last month that they’re open sourcing the code for other to roll-their-own microblogging services (http://www.jaiku.com/blog/2009/01/15/were-going-open-source/). I bet we’ll see them roll out a beta version on Google Apps pretty soon.
I smell fried Twitter.
greetings,
i’m actually anxious to see how it works. for my personal experience, i often don’t find what i’m looking for in several social websites, either searching for people or music for instense.
cheers from Sahara Desert!
Perhaps a type of meta search engine just for real time conversations can be developed interwoven with an advertising platform…original concept, huh?!
Seriously, I do believe this could be an extremely good source of targeted traffic…just look at how some marketers are coming up using Twitter alone.
Weather google likes or wants to do it they will have to keep up to the growing demand
This is very cool. The more ways to see a real time snapshot of the social media graph the better!
Great concept, Tweeting has come along way.
some (well, a few) might recall something dubbed “community search” on aol – yes, aol. this little search would query across all aol message boards, blogs, home pages and live chat rooms and return results from the past 60 seconds to 5 minutes. wanna know where people are mentioning obama RIGHT NOW? it was there. pretty neat. it was several years ago when i and a few others built it – not sure it’s still live.
Pretty neat!
Err isn’t this pretty old news?
http://www.monitter.com have been feeding into this for awhile now.
yes it is.
It’s not that it’s a brand new concept, but there is a difference between a few sites that only a select few have heard of and the mainstream.
I appreciate that Twitter is a sort of cross-section of “what people are talking about”, which would to an extent be a good indicator of up-to-the-minute trends (“1000s of people are talking about it – quick, sell it!”), but Google already publishes Trends, which amounts to a similar thing (if they’re searching for it then they’re probably talking about it too) so I guess we will see Google adapting fairly easily. As a marketer though, I want to SEE what people are searching for/talking about, not search for what I think people might be talking about! If you see what I mean.
I agree with you, but what I found is that people are there on Twitter to promote their products rather than discussing about other things in general.
rubbish that people talk about on Twitter. I have stopped following so many people as they just tweet a load of drivel. I don’t think live search is going to worry google at all. And also, my website is targetted towards people in the 40+ age group of the majority of them have never even heard of Twitter.
Wouldn’t you say there is also plenty of rubbish on the web in general? This only makes search all the more useful.
I agree with you, Siesta. People have no clue what they are talking sometimes.
That is one of the functions of search, if filters a lot of rubbish from the good ones. Unfortunately, this needs more improvement.
Since twitter has been getting written up in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal & Washington Post – the demographics have been shifting and beginning to trend older. In my little slice of Twitter, there are plenty of folks over 45 and over 55; and there a lots of travel-savvy folks as well. So being able to search for people wanting to travel to Spain would not be helpful to you?
Anytime companies start to compete with each other, the customer benefits.
I agree with the comment above that most people are looking for high quality relevant information that is sourced, not some random persons off the cuff ideas about a topic. Most of what is found on Twitter is trivial in nature so I doubt it is a threat to Google. If any thing it helps to get the real time trivial exchanges out of the way.
Both the static and real time content can coexist nicely online.
This is something I was wanting right from the moment I joined Twitter. Nice to see they’re finally implementing it.
There is a company who offers semantic search over twitter in additions to flickr and any other website. It’s really cool.