Google and BING have been waging a PR battle surrounding "Real Time Search". What does this mean? Basically their ability to index Twitter results and include them in the Search Engine Results (SERPs). In theory this sounds great. Something happens and in the past you would quickly turn on the news to get the latest information. But does this translate when it comes to internet search? Some of the most searched for terms in 2009 included things like "Michael Jackson", "Twighlight", "Megan Fox" etc. I did not search for these terms at all, I can show you my Google History to prove it. I'm not saying I am better, just not part of the online majority that searches for "entertainment" type searches. With that said these appear to be the high volume type of searches that will include real time search results.

Another non-entertainment / name example relevant to today is a search for "Haiti" as there was an earthquake there yesterday. This is a topic that I would be interested in seeing breaking news. So here it is- a screenshot from Google for the term "haiti":

So you can see the usual Google results, Wikipedia etc. Then half way down you see News and "Latest Results" which are the Twitter items. The scrolling nature of the Twitter results on Google is a nice feature showing this is an active topic that justifies up to the minute updates. In this case the Twitter results are powerful- see the American Red Cross promoting how to help people during this tragedy. So in this case there is true value in including Twitter results in the SERP. As long as search engines make a strong effort to evaluate what searches would benefit from Twitter results, and not just deliver them for every search because its the latest hot thing, then this could be a truly beneficial source of timely, relevant information. Let's hope we continue to see valuable contributors like the American Red Cross utilize Twitter and appear in search results and keep the entertainment and romur Twitter contributors out of the SERPs.