Real-Time Search Engine Adds New Features

Real-time search engine Wowd, has introduced a real-time tag cloud and a real-time streaming feature to its search service.

The real-time tag cloud is based on hot topics customized to an individual's search query. Wowd's "Hot Topics" tag cloud offers a slice of the most popular topics online, including blogs, news, and the most discussed topics on Twitter.

Users can personalize their own tag cloud by downloading Wowd's browser application or they can stick with a basic tag cloud based on the most popular pages people are visiting in real-time.

The company's new SearchStream feature continuously crawls the web looking for new information related to a user's search query. Results roll in automatically from across the web. SearchStream is also available by downloading Wowd's browser application.

Other real-time search engines include OneRiot, which was rumored to be in talks with Yahoo last year, CrowdEye and Collecta.

"These features highlight the best aspect of Wowd's real-time search: fortuitous discovery," said Mark Drummond, CEO, Wowd Inc.

"Wowd doesn't solely rely on tweets for real-time information. Our results are based on what the majority of people are interested in across the entire Web, at any given moment."
 

 

Death, Disease, Money, and Twitter on Bing

Microsoft's Bing has revealed a top ten list of the most popular trending topics of 2009. To determine these, Bing analyzed billions of search queries and developed the list based on searches made with the Bing search (I mean decision) engine.

"Not surprisingly, we saw a lot of folks using Bing for quick access to favorite sites like Facebook, MSN, Youtube and Craigslist," says Bing Geneal Manager Danielle Tiedt. "We also saw a lot of more complex searches such as product related queries in which people used Bing to help decide what MP3 player to buy and travel searches to help find the best deals on a tropical vacation."

Here is the list Bing came up with:

1. Michael Jackson
2. Twitter
3. Swine Flu
4. Stock Market
5. Farrah Fawcett
6. Patrick Swayze
7. Cash for Clunkers
8. Jon and Kate Gosselin
9. Billy Mays
10. Jaycee Dugard

As you can see, dead celebrities took a lot of searchers' time this year (and there certainly were a lot to pass away in '09). It is no surprise that Twitter was high on the list. It has been a huge year for the company. With H1N1 and the economy dominating the news for much of the year, it is also unsurpsing to see terms like "swine flu," "stock market," and "cash for clunkers" on the list.

As a bonus, Bing provided a "sneak peek" at the top celebrity searches on Bing in 2009. The top three were Perez Hilton, followed by Robert Pattinson, and Megan Fox.


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Top 10 Photo/Video Categories on Twitter

The numbers show that Twitterers sent out less Tweets in August, but there is still plenty of Tweeting going around. In fact, Twitter has even surpassed MySpace in the UK, in terms of visits.

"Twitter is estimated to have between 35-45 million users worldwide that access the site on a daily basis to share their life as it happens," a representative for Yfrog tells WebProNews.

Yfrog is of course, a service that lets Twitterers share videos and photos on the social network. Today they have released a top ten list of the types of media most commonly shared on Twitter. They say this is a good way to gain insight into the Twitter Universe.

Yfrog's Top 10 Twitter Photo and Video Topics

1. Faces, people and self portraits
2. Food
3. Whereabouts (restaurants, beaches, stuck in traffic, etc.
4. Tattoos and body art
5. Cars
6. Beer and cocktails
7. Pets
8. Babies and children
9. Live event: concert, game
10. Video games and iPhone screengrabs

I suppose one could think of this in a similar sense as they would Twitter's trending topics. Those are specific topics that are "hot" on Twitter, and these are kind of a reflection about what people are sharing on a more personal level.

Of course, Yfrog has its own list of search trends as well, that provides image/video posts from people on hot topics.