Real time search is now

One small leap for Google, one giant leap of faith for SEOs. Real time search is now.

Although may of the iconic voices in the SEO world are claiming the recent search engine obsession with real time search is a bit over-hyped, this is certainly a signal that personalized search and the shift towards a real time web is indisputably underway.

Real time search is already starting to show up in SERPs for queries like “youtube.com” and “white house” – but has yet to really saturate results for mainstream news portals, government institutions, or social media entities.  The technology is clearly experimental, and it’s a safe bet user interaction will be tested/evaluated heavily during the surge in internet traffic this holiday season.

In the last few weeks, Google has rolled out personalized search, social search, music search, and even a particularly funky mobile application which blends search with the physical world in a melange of augmented reality and google maps.  There’s obviously a significant user-behavior based transition in the works…likely to a search experience which is purely tailored for an individualized user based on historic search behaviors. Is this a good idea? Well, my mind’s not made up…but there are quite a few opinions out there which make quite a bit of sense.