The potential of Twitter as a real-time search engine and posing a threat to traditional algorithmic search engines like Google is not to be underestimated. During the recent Iran's post election violence, ordinary people tweeted snippets of events as they were unfolding. Twitter for all purposes was the only real source of real-time event information for CNN and other people as most of journalists and news media were banned from taking any pictures or covering the events. I myself went to CNN and searched for latest news in Google but was frustrated that the information was dated. Twitter on the other hand gave me excellent perspective from both the events as well as the discussions of the events by hundreds of tweeters.
With proper search facilities it would not be inconcievable that Twitter could easily be the primary source for real-time news and information for many pushing Google and other search engines to the side. With millions of users tweeting thoughts, ideas, news and information in real-time, twitter captures the current "pulse" of mankind. It provides an insight to what's currently occupying the minds of people across the world and how these thoughts and ideas will shape tomorrow. So here comes a company that capitalizes on this real-time social search potential of Twitter.
Crowdeye a company started by ex-microsoft engineers and still in Beta mode certainly got my interest. It has the same simple Google interface witht the the various topics/trends listed under the search bar. Click on a topic and you see a screen arranged nicely with real-time tweets, some of the popular links to various sites filtered from the tweets and a graph of # of tweets on the subject per time.
Wondering how these companies will change the search engine dynamics. Would social search offer a compelling alternative to algorithmic search?
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