Make Google Real-Time With Twitter Search Add-on
Some people say that "the real-time web" could be the next generation of post-Google search. Social media tools have greatly increased not just the number of people posting content online but also the speed with which they are able to do so. Do we need a new search paradigm that prioritizes publishing freshness higher than page rank?
Google backers say that Google is already capable of indexing anything online mere moments after it's been published - but the user experience in search doesn't really feel "real time" right now. Movable Type consultant Mark Carey came up with a simple solution this weekend that could change your use of Google more than anything else has in a while.
Carey has written a simple browser add-on that displays the 5 most recent Twitter search results for any search terms at the top of any Google search results page. It's so simple! Why hasn't anyone else done it before now? We don't know, but we installed Carey's script just as soon as we found out about it.
Called "Realtime Twitter Search Results on Google," the service is actually a Greasemonkey script. Don't be intimidated: Carey explains on his blog how anyone running Firefox can add the script to their browser with less than 5 clicks of the mouse. (See our short video on learning how to use Greasemonkey in under 5 minutes, too.)
To be honest, we've been using Twitter search for discovery lately anyway and Google for retrieval of known info at URLs we can't remember.
Carey consults for ReadWriteWeb and also built our awesome FriendFeed comment integration, among other things.
If Twitter is down (as it was again this morning) or if there are no search results available, then the Google page will simply look unaltered. The Twitter results don't load as fast as the Google page does, which is a bit of a bummer, but hardly a deal breaker. That may be a Twitter API issue or it may be an implementation problem, but it's the only shortcoming we see to this otherwise straightforward approach. We'd love to see some additional little features, like a link to the RSS feed on Twitter for search results, some javascript to view more results if the first 5 are valuable and maybe an option to view Twellow user bio search results.
As it is, though, Carey's script delivers real-time search results to Google - just like people have asked for! Thanks Mark! You can follow Mark on Twitter at @mthacks, you can follow me at @marshallk and you can follow the activities of the whole ReadWriteWeb team at @readwriteweb.
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Brilliant idea! Thanks for sharing it, Marshall. And Mark, thanks for thinking of it and making it real.
Makes you wonder why Google didn't think of it..oh yeah, they bought Jaiku. Ha, how's that working out for ya Google. Just goes to show you how valuable good Twitter content can be.
I also spoke of another way to integrate Twitter with Google Gresemonkey (in French)
http://www.accessoweb.com/Integrer-Twitter-dans-les-resultats-de-Google_a4895.html
Very creative work. But are we mixing apples and oranges?
Google search is site navigation (i.e. 25% of the use) and information discovery. Twitter serves a social purpose.
We've used Twitter search differently. For example, http://s.tEarn.com/ lists over 200 NCAA teams for March Madness. Visitors can find, watch videos, and then chat with Twitters who have the common interest. It's guided search leading to informed chats.
Realtime is hot. Visitors join the conversation realtime, if Twitter is behaving.
Looking to work with photo sources to deploy realtime photo updates.
This has to be one of the most useful discovery tools of the new year. Twitter's search value is increasingly competitive to Google.
Yep. Friends are already glad I retweeted it :)
Posted by: Ed Shaz/NextInstinct
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March 2, 2009 11:12 AM
Thanks, Marshall! And thanks for the feature suggestions as well, I will those to my list of potential enhancements for the next version. I have also thought about auto-linking #hashtags to the tag page on hashtags.org...
Very Interesting. I have been using Surf Canyon for awhile now and look forward to trying this. If it works as well as the search options I been utilizing with Twitter. It should be a valuable tool.
+10 to RRW and +100 to Mark Carey!!!
hi ho @marshallk
i have this well real time twitter search onebox result greasmonkey script
http://www.facesaerch.com/blog/google-search-with-twitter-integration/
online
since jan. 13th. 2008 ( and recommended by matt cutts
http://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/1116125454 )
(a little prettier, with avatar icons and so)
should have pitched you, shouldn't i?
Yes Franz, you should have. We, with our all-seeing eyes on the web should have caught your work earlier too, though :)
Excellent plug in. Very smart. Just imagine if it had similar "second click" functionality to Google that was driven by the link density, or retweeting of certain items? Much to be learned here methinks....
What a really great idea!
Posted by: Peter Kelley
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March 2, 2009 12:28 PM
if you dont want to mess around with GreaseMonkey scripts, grab the WebMynd addon: http://www.webmynd.com/html/oneriot.html
With this you can "decorate" Google with real time web results from Twitter and OneRiot (I work there - full disclosure), and you can also add other services like Digg, etc etc.
so this confirms Google will pay whatever it takes to acquire Twitter next year, what say a $1bn?
This suggests to me that GoodSearch (and Yahoo) are getting Google a little nervous. I'm sure you saw the GoodSearch promo (and endorsement on the site) by ABC. Search there for a day and your charity gets $. http://www.goodsearch.com/ Especially when you can integrate GoodSearch toolbar with every major browser including Chrome and this is an incredibly cool way for NP's to get funding in a tough economy.
Posted by: Melanie Reed
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March 2, 2009 12:45 PM
Would it be possible to create a "subscribed link" for google that does the same thing without greasemonkey?
http://www.google.com/coop/sl
Maybe you like our newest Geo Targeting at
www.twittermap.tv
Great POst.
Totally cool Thanks
Posted by: Ron@Colossal Marketing™
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March 2, 2009 5:21 PM
amazing tools. I wanna when google will dress it himself.
this thing rocks!!
WebMynd is definitely a good choice for those who don't have GM.
The other advantage with WM is that it integrates Twitter on Yahoo and Live Search pages as well.
all right
i agree.........
Pure genius. Now I won't forget to check Twitter when I'm checking into some really fresh.
While my first thought on this were that it was a bit gimmicky, that actually looks pretty neat!
jqehrthorwt oiwe roiweohweo ew uorwoe uhrohwetrhw
all in one search engine
May I suggest using my real-time Twitter search tool?
http://tweetzi.com
Run it in a separate browser tab, side by side with Google. Just an option for those who don't wish to use a greasemonkey script.
Yes its really a good idea.
Hi there, we have put online our site today, which shows google results next to twitter search results. No need to install any script, just visit http://twootles.com and search!
Yeah, I recommend WebMynd, its definitely a useful FF plugin
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whats even better then Twootles is Twiogle.com
that's really cool tools, i just look forward to seeing my site info from twitter in google results, Could i?
Carey's greasemonkey script works great and has been around for a while now. Glad you posted this because while everyone was fawning over Bing indexing a handful of 'a-listers' tweets, you could already search everything with this.
Posted by: Chris Duffy
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July 2, 2009 8:48 AM
you think a little twitter in Bing is cool? a lot of Twitter in Google is much cooler, here's how to get it http://bit.ly/5D0Fn [from http://twitter.com/marshallk/statuses/2438644665]
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
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July 16, 2009 9:47 AM
Google doesn't need to focus on real-time search: http://www.kevin-pike.com/2009/09/should-google-focus-on-real-time-search/
To me all signs point to a negative impact on user experience.