Google announced today that the search engine would begin indexing real time updates like those on Twitter. And, Microsoft’s search engine Bing announced today a deal with Twitter and Facebook to search real time updates. This is huge news for news!
Think back to some of the biggest breaking news events of the past year. When the US Airways flight landed on the Hudson it was Twitter that broke the story. When Iranians rose up to speak their minds and protest the presidential election they used Twitter to overcome media blackouts. The news of Michael Jackson’s death was a trending topic even before it was on TV. And, when the world was riveted to television wondering if balloon boy was actually in the balloon, it was the Twittersphere who began to dig into the bizarre background of the balloon boy’s father.
By making Twitter searches and other real time updates searchable on Google and Bing, news will travel faster than ever before. I am not as likely to tune into Fox News or CNN any more. My first move is Twitter. Now, I can hit up Google or Bing to get the latest in user-generated reports. And, for this former journalism major and geek, that is just cool.
Click here to view the announcement from Google and here for the Bing news from Wired.
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