Google suspends realtime search results from Twitter
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Google ‘Realtime Search’ application stops functioning
Do you remember Google’s ‘Realtime Search’ application? Well, for Twitter diehard fans the result is disappointing with the application going temporarily defunct. Realtime Search was a company-lauded index that dedicatedly featured tweets and updates, but is no more operational. The option no more features on the sidebar of the search results. Instead your headhunt ends in a 404 error page. The suspension of this application is the result of the end-of-contract between Google and Twitter on July 2, 2011. The search application that allowed instant access to a full feed of Twitter public updates is no more.
Industry info makes its way from Google to Search Engine Land revisits the original Twitter agreement dated to October 2009. The deal was that even through Google did not have direct access to Twitter feeds, the crawlers could make available to Google users public information on Twitter based on what crawlers picked up. Such searchable info was featured on the Realtime Search application. Discoverable on Google, the feeds brought in renewed interest from users of both platforms.
Google+ and other web resources being favored for real time search
According to the agreement, Google envisioned empowering users with google.com/realtime for Google+ information, besides dedicated Realtime data that was sourced from a variety of web resources. The talk in the industry includes a version whereby Google is supposedly negotiating with Twitter. The talks are for an extension via a completely reworked Google Realtime product in the making. According to a Twitter spokesperson, the service options worked out with Google since October 2009 stands ‘expired’, and with no more access by Google to twitter’s stream of tweets made public.
Twitter continues to empower Microsoft, Yahoo!, Yahoo! Japan, NTT Docomo, and a myriad of developers with similar access. The spokesperson also made a claim to be working with Google in other avenues. Is Google + to blame here? The Twitter like social networking forum has been in the news forefront for a while now. A quick look at the path-that-was reveals that Google Realtime Search began with Twitter search results before spanning the spectrum of shared feeds with Yahoo Answers, MySpace updates, a number of news articles and updates on a Facebook Page.
This was also the time when social services like Gowalla and Quora made it to the news. Later added, these platforms are expected to continue to exist. There is nothing to hide in the fact that Twitter and Google+ will remain at loggerheads for the same services provided at a time when users across the bar are willing to experiment. The launch of Google+ seems much to be called off as mere coincidence, right?
Taking on the power of a giant like Google is not going to be easy and Google + provides much to be desired for yet; but nevertheless, fans and the users of both forums do look forward to an amicable rejuvenation of the agreement. Google and Twitter Realtime Search was an option that added value to both web giants. Adopting the sudden absence of the app in the menu sidebar is going to take time to sink in.