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RSSThe Challenges
In exploring whether Twitter has the ability to become a viable alternative, let's look at the issues it must overcome. The most glaring to me is the role that Google plays in the public consciousness. Google is a trusted advisor, a repository of information, a question and click away. And while it's easy to debate the ease of finding information and the user's dependence on the algorithm to place everything in proper order (compared to the 20th century equivalent, the encyclopedia), it's a vast leap forward.
And that is the first challenge for Twitter: it leaves the parsing in the hands of the consumer. You ask the question and have to determine, based on your network, who you trust more, and the validity of the answer. Twitter is challenged in this regard because currently the options for finding answers are limited to those following you. And, if your network is full of slumdogs like Salim and not the lone millionaire, then you may be out of luck. At best, you will be left waiting until your own Jamal returns to the discussion. And that becomes issue number two. Speed. Search may not always give you the answer on the first click, but in almost all cases, the answers are within the results with the right kind of digging.
So, if Twitter has so many challenges, how does it overcome them?
1. Buy ChaCha. If a challenge of Twitter today is that you're limited in who can help you answer a question, then let's give the system ways to answer the question. And what better way than to tie together the hottest SMS solution for Q&A with the hottest micro-blogging service. This would enable users to ask their network, as they are already doing -- but when immediacy matters, tie together a mobile solution.
2. Do a search deal, then build your own paid search network. Online, the value of Twitter is through the commentary. Imagine the "relevant" ads one might get if one's Twitter feeds were aligned with an AdSense-like solution. Think about the absurdity that might ensue if each time someone left a tweet, a new series of ads was served, trying to discern what on earth someone meant. But, if a network was built aligning with your tweets or the discussion threads you were engaged in, then that would start to provide more context and value. It would be easy to start with a Google AdSense deal; but if this is for the ownership of the space, then it would make little sense for Twitter to work with the 800-pound gorilla. Instead, it should look at a partnership with the owner of point #3.
3. Be your own boss. One of the least-heralded yet most-intriguing offerings of the last year was Yahoo Boss. The ability to take control of your own search engine is a compelling idea that seemed of little nterest to the general public and the business community. But if Twitter rebuilt its user interface to offer algorithmically established results in combination with paid listings and an ongoing micro-blogging feed related to the intent expressed through comment or query, the end product could truly be game-changing.
One of the sad truths of the past five years is that no one has successfully connected search and social from a user standpoint. They remain two distinct channels with minimal integration onto SERPs from social. Both Yahoo 360 and Google Wiki were attempts to bring community into the results page. But if you started from a position of community and worked back towards search, you might find a solution where community and engine could work in tandem.
A rudimentary example of the potential integration is available for the Firefox browser, through the Greasemonkey plug-in and script. The combination inserts a real-time Twitter stream into Google results. And while the plug-in may offer a sneak peek into the future, it does not come close to where this could be for both personal connections and query responses to a given expression of intent. Add to that the effort one must put in to experience mashup, and this is but a taste of what may be to come.
Whether or not Twitter is the future of search is hard to say. As it stands today, I would suggest it is not. Too many users lack the time or community to successfully replace Google in their daily life. But, a solution that could provide search-like organization with the ability to choose from the standard of today, or that of a pre-established network of intelligence, would completely change the space for many.
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Great article! Just one small point -- on search.twitter.com, you're not at all limited to who's in your network. You can search every unhidden Twitter feed in the world. So the other day, when Gmail was down, Twitter search was a much better tool for me to find out what was going on (is it just me, is it just New Zealand, are people managing to access their accounts via POP3, etc) than Google could have possibly hoped for.
I also hear a lot about Twitter search being useless because it's just a bunch of people saying whatever they want. But doesn't that pretty much describe the entire Internet, which is where Google results come from?
My take on this: Since Google only searches the past and Twitter offers real-time search they are somewhat incompatible. It remains to be seen if a first-mover advantage works or if indeed something like facebook which commands a different sized audience can control this new "wave".
Either way - one thing is clear... A new industry is emerging and the development of new, "aware" applications that harness concepts like P2P and speech recognition while focusing on how to best serve these new real-time searches (and in the future, "events") seems like, to me, the evolution of search.
I am thinking of the old saying, "one who does not remember his/her history is destined to repeat it..." - so I believe that there will always be a place for google (because real-time is not everything) - but I seriously doubt their abilities to maintain such a tight grip on the entire search industry.
Regarding the commercialization of the Twitter portal: I guess soon the twitterati will be talking about the "good old days" of old school twitter- before the contextual and behavioral ad bombardment, and as one colleague suggests, contextual/behavorial DMs. (egads!)
I enjoy Twitter's current folksiness and element of surprise. It's a bit like a game of chance: you never know who will be tweeting at any given time or where the discussion will lead you. Yes, if you choose to follow people that are talking about the hotdog they just ate and how they are in the john presently, then you will have an inferior expereince.
I am having great experiences on Twitter and making connections in a very unique style and format. I don't need to use Twitter as an alternate search engine, thank you very much.
The digital world is binary. The real world is analog. I, therefore, suggest that Twitter will compliment Google, just like it compliments Facebook and MySpace.
But for your readership, I like Tweetbeep (alerts) and I like Twitalyzer (see how you show up on Twitter in 5 categories).
Best, Scott Broomfield - Veeple's CEO and Co-Founder
While Twitter isn't currently capable of globally replacing "search" it IS powerful for a specific type of search, most notably current events/news. Tweetgrid.com is my method of choice for conducting such searches.
Twitter gets a lift now because we want something new and cool on the Internet to succeed. Long term? I hope as I expect its reach and capability grows...but I don't think anyone really knows.
Twitter can't be categorically dismissed nor does it currently hold a candle to Google's search power.
The thought that Twitter - let's recall what this is: a site where people who are afflicted with Crackberry disease now have a reason (or another reason) to look implusively at their connected devices every 8 seconds like some compulsive handwasher or lockchecker - will replace or even challenge a dynamic piece of work like Google (Groups, Apps, Video, Mobile, Mail, Search the list goes on and on) is patently absurd. One is a digital twitchfest of useless information ("I'm thinking Arby's - anybody near Lincoln and 12th want to eat lunch with me? I'm the 30 year-old loser on the skateboard with the dreds, dude. I'm the new VP of Social Networked Viral Flash Doodads for Devolver, we're proving that humans are evolving into gaming devices.") while the other simply let's you find almost any piece of information on the internet in a fairly logical manner.
Am I missing something? I must be - because (as they say) "One of these things is not like the other".
Twitter is going to monetize search the same way Google monetized search. They are going to charge advertisers to send little DM's to people who mention things related to their line of business. For example, I'm a furniture vendor, if someone says they need to buy furniture, I want to advertise to that person. Arguably, that person is further along in the conversion cycle than someone performing a search for "furniture" on Google. For more on "Twitter Paid Search," see my blog entry: http://inside.nikkoshops.com/twitter-is-the-next-paid-search-venue/. Thanks.
Thus, can Twitter get past this and ever generate the scale that Google has?