New Tool Adds Twitter Search To Google

Mar 2, 2009 at 3:07pm ET by Matt McGee

A new tool takes us one small step closer to bringing real-time search, i.e., Twitter search results, to the Google interface. It’s called Twitter Search Results on Google, and it adds the most recent five tweets for your search query above Google’s regular search results, like this:

Twitter on Google screenshot

(The tool is actually a Greasemonkey script for Firefox. But don’t let that intimidate you. Personal note: If I can learn how to install and use Greasemonkey scripts, anyone can!)

While Google is able to index content within minutes of publishing, there continues to be a push for improved searching of the real-time information that a service like Twitter provides. We’ve written before about Twitter being faster to spread earthquake news than the US Geological Survey. In January, Danny asked why Google and Yahoo don’t offer Twitter search.

A Yahoo developer created Tweetnews, a separate search engine that uses Twitter conversations as a ranking signal for timely news items. But this new Greasemonkey script is, to my knowledge, the first such tool that puts fresh Twitter search results right on Google itself.

ReadWriteWeb offered some suggested improvements, like a link to the Twitter search RSS feed and the ability to see more than five tweets. Those are good, and I’d also like to be able to remove certain Twitter users from showing up in these new results.

Meanwhile, on a somewhat related note, CNET News writes today about Twitter’s plans to upgrade its own search technology. There’s a screenshot from Twitter investor Fred Wilson that shows things like “Matching users” and “Featured user.” CNET points out, though, that Wilson’s screenshot might be older than one recently shown on the Twitter blog. Still, it’s worth looking at as a possible peek into how Twitter plans to upgrade its own search capabilities.

Matt McGee is the Search Engine Land Assignment Editor, and offers search marketing consulting and training to businesses of all sizes. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and HyperlocalBlogger.com.

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