All thanks to Twitter, FriendFeed, OneRiot and other similar platforms, real-time web has been a popular concept since 2006. It is not only a main focus of the Internet, but also a trend too. So what does a real-time web looks like? Check it out below…
Â
Objectives
Present: Real-time Web has provided Internet users an easy way to get a specific thing at once, and this can be anything, be it ‘What are you doing?’, ‘What’s in your mind’, ‘What’s the answer of…?’, ‘How do you think about…?’, etc. Besides that, real-time web also offers a quick way for communications, and satisfies curiosity of people about following others.
Future: Real-time web will be filled with instant data; it can provide a trend of ‘What has happened just now?’, ‘Does the world change?’, ‘What’s the latest…?’. Also, Real-time Web can be used to let people get what they want at once, such as answers, solutions and ideas.
Â
Technologies
Present: Currently, there are many real-time search engines on the web and some of the popular ones includes Twitter Search, OneRiot, SocialMention and Technorati. Real-time search engine is able to allow people to know about a topic instantaneously and the results are sorted by date-time instead of relevance.
Future: Semantic Web Information Analysis offers a powerful and unique way to discover related information and collect trending topics in a more relevant way. Powerful Information Filters are designed for users to gain clearer awareness.
Â
Applications
Present: Acts as a dedicated Micro-blogging Platform or a part of an integrated social networking platform.
Future: Will act as a part of a Search Engine, a channel for media or social Q&A platforms.
Â
Business Models
Present: Relative text-ads, Rich Media Ads or Internet Value-Added Services (aka IVAS).
Future: API Access Pricing (OneRiot), Data Pack (Twitter), Applications Promotion (Facebook), Premium Applications License or Content Union.
Â
Influences
Present: Changing the way that people receiving breaking news, communicating with each other or be aware of latest things.
Future: Changing the way that people get knowledge instantaneously, users can receive responses rapidly or study the world in present instead of history.
Â
Typical Examples
Present: Twitter, FriendFeed, Real-time Search Engines (OneRiot, SocialMention), Facebook (Partially), all IMs (Partially), Google (Partially).
Future: Waiting for you.
Â
Conclusion
For the past few days, I have been wondering whether Google will ever beat its fellow rivals in terms of real-time web and this seems relatively quite impossible. One great example would be Google versus Twitter Search. Although Google’s search results are most accurate and indexes the historical web much faster and better than the user-controlled Twitter Search, but when it comes to real-time search, Twitter Search will definitely emerged as champions.
The recent Swine Flu pandemic, last year’s Mumbai terrorist carnage and the news of the plane that crashed in the Hudson River few months ago have However, there are several downsides with the real-time web. For example, ‘Swine Flu’ which has been the top trending topics on Twitter for almost a week has sparked off criticism among bloggers. The reason is because Twitter users tend to either exaggerate the seriousness of the pandemic or provide irrelevant figures.
In conclusion, both Twitter and Facebook will emerged as an alternative to the traditional engine, which presents a huge challenge to Google’s core business. It’s actually quite easy for Google to continue leading the future generations of the search engine. Since they have the deep pockets, they can rule the real-time web by simply acquiring Twitter and anything else it fancies. If Google were to purchase any influential real-time search engines or come up with a brilliant idea to somehow dominate the real-time web without changing its core business, then Google can ‘mock’ at other Internet companies because nobody is able to overtake them.