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Filed under: Google, Search

It's not just Bing - Google makes Twitter search deal, too

When Microsoft partnered with Twitter to allow its Bing search engine to index tweets in real time, it looked like they had finally gotten the jump on Google at something. Just hours later, Google VP Marissa Mayer announced that the big G had made a Twitter deal, too. Although Bing's Twitter product is out today, Google's won't be too far behind.

It looks like Google intends to use tweets to augment search results for up-to-the-minute data. In the official Google blog post on the subject, Mayer gives the example of weather conditions at a ski resort. Getting access to tweets is good for Google, but Bing still has the advantage of being the first to snag the Facebook deal. How long until Google gets one of those, as well?

Filed under: Business, Web services, Search, Microblogging

Bing makes search deals with Facebook and Twitter

With so much hype about real-time as the future of search, it makes sense that the major players in search would make moves to partner up with real-time networks like Facebook and Twitter. What's surprising is that the first big move is coming from Microsoft Bing, and not from Google. At today's Web 2.0 summit, Bing announced deals with Twitter and Facebook, which will allow Bing to start searching those sites' status updates. The Twitter search was demonstrated at the conference, and you should be able to play with it later today at bing.com/twitter. The Facebook product isn't due out until later, but it will give Bing access to all Facebook's public status updates.

Bing showed off some impressive features of its Twitter search product at the conference, including filtering of duplicate tweets and adult content. It also expands bit.ly URLs, so you know where those shortlinks lead. Unlike Twitter's own search, Bing's product attempts to deliver not just the most recent tweets, but the most relevant.

Apparently, both Twitter and Facebook have been talking to Google as well, but Bing is first to make a deal. The two deals are separate and non-exclusive, meaning that Twitter and Facebook aren't getting into bed together (yet) and that there's still room for Google to make a play like the one Microsoft just pulled off.

[via CNET]

Filed under: Blogging, Web services, web 2.0

Is "Real-Time" taking the place of "Web 2.0" on the hypechart?


Is just me, or is "real-time" the replacement term for "Web 2.0": you know, hideously over-used, over-hyped and prime for a square on the Internet Bullsh*t Bingo card? I mean, word has it that every man, dog and Venture Capitalist is on the real-time train now that mere mortals like parents are embracing Twitter. Continuing the real-time push is Pubsubhubbub - the real-time blog notification technology with a name that 95% of the Internet struggle to pronounce on first reading - and today it received another boost from Typepad who've enabled the technology on all their hosted blogs.

If you're wondering "what does this mean for me?", it's worth noting that Pubshubhubbub isn't something that consumers in general would see - it's designed to speed up the propagation of news to RSS services and the like - though if you're looking forward to the even-quicker delivery of illiterately-captioned cat photos to Google Reader, this is the magic sauce that may well power it.

It's not that I'm opposed to real-time notifications in general [I mean, I'm dying for Twitter to flick the switch and stream updates from my friends doing their laundry to my iPhone] but in an age where we're seemingly drawn to 'first' instead of 'better' with the news, I can't help but feel we ought to be looking at relevancy, not real-time.

[Original Image from Dave Winer]

Filed under: Office, Productivity, VoIP, Web

Real-time collaboration is simple with Team Apart

Sometimes, the best people for a job can't all assemble in the same physical location. That's not a problem when everyone's working independently, but even the best remote coworkers sometimes need to have a meeting. Team Apart makes that possible, with really simple real-time collaboration features including audio/video chat and whiteboarding.

It's easy to invite people to your Team Apart workspace. In fact, you just have to send them the URL. Once everybody's in the room, you can chat via webcam and take notes on a shared real-time notepad. You can also share photos and documents, and Team Apart will store them in your virtual workspace. Team Apart is still in beta, with limited invitations available, but it looks like a simple and effective solution to some of the problems of remote collaboration.

Filed under: Web services, Social Software, Search

CrowdEye: the real-time search space is getting crowded

It looks like real-time search - mainly built around Twitter - is the hot new bandwagon to jump on. Twitscoop, Scoopler, Twingly, Searchmerge, Collecta ... we've written about all of these this year, and the grab for real-time search traffic hasn't stopped yet. CrowdEye is the latest entry to catch our attention in this already-crowded field.

CrowdEye is limited compared to some of the above-mentioned competitors, in that it only searches Twitter. Collecta, for example, searches photos, news stories, and other microblogging services, and offers the option to filter any of those out if they're too much for you. CrowdEye does offer some Twitter data that its competitors don't, though: the popular links results are nice, and the graph of popularity over time for your search term could also be useful. For getting a comprehensive picture of what's going on in real time, though, I think search sites are going to have to go beyond Twitter. Even popular Twitpics and Yfrog pictures would add a lot to CrowdEye, and that seems within the site's capabilities to do.

Filed under: Social Software, Search, Web

Collecta is another take on real-time search


The real-time search arena, fueled by the popularity of Twitter, continues to heat up. Collecta is the latest and most visually appealing stab at getting real-time search right. It draws on images, articles, blog comments and microblogs for data, and refreshes automatically. The layout is a cool three-column affair, with filters on the right, live results in the middle, and a preview of your selected result on the right.

The ability to filter out different kinds of results is useful. Sometimes you just want to see photos or articles, and ignore all the Twitter, Identica and Jaiku chatter, or vice versa. Twitter is really the core of these real-time search sites, though, and Collecta is no different. It's got Twitter's trending topics on the front page. In terms of speed, Collecta is faster than the competitors I've tried out. If you've got a hankering for real-time search, this looks like the site to check out at the moment.

Filed under: Macintosh, Social Software, web 2.0, Web

Realtime event tracking with Almost.at


As people discover that social sites can be pretty decent news sources, especially when it comes to event coverage, I think we'll start seeing a lot more projects like Almost.at. Almost.at uses text, photos, videos and links from sites including Twitter and Flickr to show as-it-happens coverage of everything from concerts to conferences to breaking news stories. Right now, for example, a Phish concert, the E3 expo and a missing Air France flight are all being covered.

Almost.at's three column layout and automatic refresh are nice, but the site goes beyond what you see on its web display. You can add usernames to an event on Almost.at, so others can see and follow people who are at the event, and you can also download a standalone Almost.at browser for OS X. If you're interested in a particular event, it beats opening sites and search results across different tab and refreshing them manually.

Filed under: Productivity, Social Software, Search

SearchMerge: search Google and social sites simultaneously


With all the hype around Twitter as the future of search, it makes sense that someone would put together a search engine that combines Google results with results from social sites around the web. Enter SearchMerge. It's basically just a text entry field and a selection of sites to search, including Twitter, Friendfeed and YouTube, but it has the potential to be very useful. Or, it would, if there were any apparent rhyme or reason to the order of the results.

A search for Download Squad turned up a Last.fm page, our website, a year-old Vimeo video, and a post about netbooks from February, in that order. The results were all relevant, but they could be sorted in a more logical way. SearchMerge is also fairly slow when you're using it to search every available site. The real-time search option is neat, but suffers from the same long wait for results. It's a great idea, but it has a long way to go in the implementation.

Filed under: Search, web 2.0

Scoopler: real-time search results and more


As developers look at the success of Twitter and the possibilities of real-time, search results that come straight from social networks, we're going to start seeing a lot more search engines like Scoopler. Scoopler delivers search trends in the left column, scrolling search results from Twitter, Delicious, Flickr and Digg in the center, and video, links and images on the right.

Scoopler's not going to replace Google any time soon, but it's also not designed to. It probably can replace Google for you in those cases where you really need up-to-the-minute information, the kind that people will be Twittering about before it shows up on news sites. Twitter Search is obviously great for this, too, but Scoopler gives you more sources and updates in real-time. It's definitely worth checking out if you're a web trends junkie.

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Productivity, Web services, Commercial, Social Software, AOL, web 2.0

AIM 6.8 Beta includes real-time IM: Freudian slips not just a vocal problem

AIM real-time IM
Ever wanted to see what your friends are typing to you as they type it? You'll get your chance with latest AIM Beta. Now at version 6.8, the newest version of AIM includes support for real-time IM. Unfortunately, Freudian slips are no longer a vocal problem.

The new feature is incompatible with iChat, Pidgin, and other third party IM clients, but if this catches on, it's likely they'll add support to for real-time IM soon. For now, if you'd like to use this feature, you'll need to use the official AIM client.

Real-time IM requires one of the users to activate a direct connection. The other party may choose to decline, so at least it's optional. Though it may seem "regular" and "bland", the ability to edit instant messages is a blessing. Maybe we're just a bit geekier and a little more old-fashioned than the average person, but we've been caught in way too many awkward, verbal situations because of something as minor as a forgotten name (it's hard to remember everyone from high school, dammit).

[via CyberNet]

Filed under: Audio, Business, Internet, Video, News, Web services, IBM, Microsoft, VoIP

IBM grabs real-time collaboration market ahead of Microsoft?

IBM sametimeIBM's application dubbed Sametime is a collaboration tool, which IBM hopes to use to push the limits of real-time collaboration technology, is out now in version 7.5. Microsoft is IBM largest collaboration competitor right now, whose real-time collaboration project is set to be out next year (SharePoint Server). IBM thinks that because they collaborate with open-source partners, they will innovate faster than Microsoft and beat them to market. For one thing IBM is behind the eight-ball here. Microsoft's collaboration suite is "trouncing" theirs, and the numbers show that Microsoft's product is gaining speed and volume. All Microsoft has to do is add real-time collaboration features to their product, and the 70 million + users will simply upgrade. Why would IBM think Microsoft's success will plummet? IBM's product is out early, but Microsoft's product is now well entrenched in enterprise. My bet is on the clear leader of the pack who pretty much pwns IBM in this market. Good luck IBM, you're going to need it.

[Via InformationWeek]

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So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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