Google to Relaunch Realtime Search and Integrate Google+ Data

According to Mashable, Google Realtime Search will be returning, and this time, it will include data from Google+, as well as other social media sources.

Back in 2009, Realtime Search was launched in which real-time search integrated into search results pages. The search would incorporate information as things happened around the Internet-for example, live tweets from Twitter, news articles, data from public Facebook Pages, Yahoo! Answers, and more, would be on the actual result pages for a search. Anytime a major current event was making headlines, Google Search would display Facebook updates, live tweets, and data from other social media services that discussed the recent news, making the search engine more relevant during these major events.

Also in 2009, Google’s main competitor Bing made deals with both Facebook and Twitter to integrate status updates into its search engine. Recently, Bing further expanded on Facebook integration in its search results, displaying much more data from Facebook profiles and the Facebook Like button.

Last month, Realtime Search was taken down after Google failed to reach an agreement with Twitter regarding continued access to Twitter’s data. Without a constant stream of live tweets, Realtime Search was nowhere near as useful. However, in a recent panel, Google Fellow Amit Singhal disclosed that the Google Search team is working actively on bringing back Realtime Search. He also said that his team was running tests that incorporated data from Google+ as well as other social media sources. It was not discussed whether or not a deal had been made with Twitter, or whether Google saw such a deal as being important for its new version of Realtime Search.

Interestingly, it was also announced at the panel that the Google Search team is working on creating a search engine exclusively for the Google+ stream.

Sources: http://mashable.com/2011/08/04/google-realtime-search-revive/,
http://mashable.com/2009/10/21/bing-facebook-twitter/ and
http://mashable.com/2011/05/16/facebook-bing-integration/