Realtime Search for Australia - Now Live
Realtime Search is a project I’ve been developing since March 2009.
I have been watching the explosive growth of Social Media, in particular sites like Facebook and Twitter.
I noticed that while there were some great sites developed to help people search these vast databases of user generated content, there wasn't something specifically for the Australian market.
Enter Realtime Search, a simple site that allows you to search in real time for what Australians are currently saying about any topic.
You can visit Realtime Search here.
http://www.realtimesearch.com.au
As you can see from the image above, the site is quite basic and currently in 'Beta'. We are already at work on the next major update to the site which all going to plan should go live before the end of June.
For now though I was keen to get the basics live and into the Australian online space and see what people think. Good, or bad, all feedback will influence updates and new features on the next version of the site.
OK, so what is Realtime Search and why would you use it?
Firstly, what it is 'not' is a replacement for Google (or for that matter any of the other search engines operating in the Australian space.) Google, and others like it, are the best place to go when looking for information that isn't time-sensitive, be it company web sites, the official homepage of your favorite band or where you can buy the latest electronic gadget (as examples.)
If however you are looking for something more immediate, be it a variety of opinions on the recently released Star Trek movie, the latest news on the Swine Flu outbreak as it happens or what people are saying about 'me', Whodeani 
then Realtime Search is a good place to start.
A good example of just how powerful and 'useful' this style of website could be can be found in a fairly significant announcement that was made in Australia earlier today about Telstra, one of Australia's largest companies.
Telstra announced earlier today that they have hired a new CEO, David Thodey. As a result social media users here in Australia has been very active.
So while traditional news services have done a great job of reporting the actual story, that David Thodey was hired (see the ABC news story here http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2564513.htm) etc... where would you go to see what people are saying about this story 'now' (that is minutes or even seconds ago) as its breaking?
See the screen grab below for an example of what people were saying about Telstra shortly after todays announcement (this was taken around 30 minutes ago).
You can see what people are saying 'right now' about Telstra by visiting Realtime Search (http://realtimesearch.com.au/search?q=telstra).
The above results are interesting as not only do you get links to the various stories posted on the topic 'as they are published' and other interesting commentary on Telstra in general, you also get to see what people 'think' on todays CEO hiring at Telstra ranging from "Good news that David Thodey is new CEO of Telstra!" to "Why does everyone think the new Telstra CEO is going to be better than the American?"
The Realtime Search site is now live in Beta and we of course welcome any feedback, comments (add them below.)
As above, the next major update of Realtime Search is due before the end of June. If you would like to keep track of Realtime Search's progress, please 'follow' it @realtimesearch.
You can also follow me, @whodeani on Twitter.
Posted by Lindy Waldeck on 05/08 at 11:02 PM