There is a new way to search the web, and boatloads of users who have experienced the real time web have been impressed with the results.  Traditional search engines rank sites based on relevancy.  Because of this, the results don’t change a lot; a search today will reveal most of the same sites and information that were there last month.  However, with companies like Twitter and Facebook having millions of users continue to post content and status updates – there is now real time content on the web which updates each second.  Search engines and startups have leveraged this information to offer internet users instant access to what is happening right now.

So, when breaking news happens, a real time search will instantly give you the public’s thoughts, opinions, and experiences in relation to the breaking news.  A search on Google news would give you links to articles written by people in the media, a real time search will allow you to sift through all internet users comments and thoughts.  There have been several startups which have launched search engines and tools to try and offer users a good experience in searching and navigating through the real time web:

Here is a list of three startups along with a quick overview of what makes each of them stand out:

1) Topsy.  What makes Topsy’s real time search engine stand out is that it is focused on real time links as opposed to real time content.   So, when you perform a search at Topsy, instead of seeing what people are talking about on the real time web, you are going to see what the most popular and prominent links are being shared on the real time web.  You can ever sort to see the most shared links over the past hour, day, week, or month.

2) OneRiot.  Rumors have been swirling all over the web in regards to a partnership Yahoo is discussing with OneRiot.  OneRiot offers users a real time search engine which can be sorted based on web results and video results.  OneRiot also announced in early October that it will be rolling out a platform for advertisers to pay for listings to featured content on their results pages. While most real time web companies have been focused on technology and traffic, OneRiot seems to be an early leader in the monetization of the real time web.

3) Sency.  Sency has built a free feed for websites and blogs .  The feed brings in real time content which updates automatically on the site or blog it is published on.  The site and blog owners are able to select which keyword they want the feed to scroll for.  So, a blog about sports, can for example, have automatically updating real time content anytime someone uses the word baseball or football shows up on the real time web

*this article was written by Guest Writer Evan Britton — Founder of Sency

One year ago Google claimed to have officially indexed 1 trillion pages in its index. The exorbitant number is supplemented with the estimation that approximately 1 billion new pages are being indexed on the web with each new day. With an astronomical amount of pages on the web, it can be increasingly difficult to find what you are looking for when searching.

Statistically about 80% of all sessions on the Web begin with a search. Simply typing a phrase into a search bar can often bring random, unrelated results. We have compiled a list of six tips and tricks that will help you find exactly what you are looking for on the web.

1. Learn helpful operator functions. Operator functions allow you to narrow down your search without using the “Advanced Search” options. Essentially, you are using the Advanced Search options through the regular search bar.

Helpful operator functions:

· Site Specific: Use the “site:” operator function to search for pages within a specific site. Example: The search [site:digg.com apple] will find ‘apple’ related pages only on Digg.

· Quotations: Use quotations to find exact phrases within pages on the index. Example: The search ["health care reform issues"] will turn up only results with this exact phrase. ["health care reform" issues] will find pages with the exact phrase ‘health care reform’ and the term ‘issues’.

· Exclusion: Use a dash to exclude certain terms from your search. Example: The search [web apps -apple -iphone] will turn up search results related to web applications that do not deal with Apple’s popular Mobile Apps platform.

· Wildcard: Use the asterisk to denote a wildcard in your search. The wildcard is helpful when you cannot remember a word in the complete phrase. Example: The search [never * give you up] will turn up the lyrics to the Rick Astley song you are searching for.

2. Use a niche search engine for research. Niche search engines cater to researching a specific topic or discipline. There are niche search engines for everything from movie reviews to obituaries.

Helpful niche search engines:

· USA.gov: USA.gov gives you access to all searchable information within the federal, state, and local governments. Example: Searching for [marijuana] will turn up results related to marijuana reform and information within the government.

· Healthline: Healthline is medical information resource. To ensure accuracy, the results are filtered by medical personnel. The engine will help you find information related to symptoms, treatment options and even doctors.

· Simply Hired: Simply Hired is a dedicated job search engine that catalogs hundreds of thousands of new jobs every week. The easy-to-use site maps jobs based on location and industry.

3. Use the right-click shortcut. The latest versions of the most popular browsers allow you to select text, right-click, and then search for the phrase. If you are on the latest version of Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Google Chrome, select some text from this paragraph and right-click to see a quick search option.

4. Hunt Twitter for time-sensitive material. Twitter is not only popular for its micro-blogging roots, but a lot of the hype that surrounds it is for its “real-time search” capabilities. Despite all of the blather to weed through on Twitter it is still a great resource to find news on time-sensitive issues. The search bar was recently added to Twitter’s home page to enable users to faster access real-time Tweets. The recent Iran election controversy is a prominent example of how Twitter can be used to find information in real-time.

5. Search straight from the address bar. Skip out on the step of going to a search engine’s home page by typing your search phrase or keywords straight into the address bar and hitting enter. Most updated versions of popular browsers already have this feature enabled. If your browser does not have this functionality enabled, consider installing a toolbar for quick search access.

6. Utilize a multimedia search engine via LeapFish. At times you will need to visit multiple search engines to find exactly what you are looking for. You can take advantage of all the major search engines at the same time by utilizing a multimedia engine that will crawl sites, videos, news, images, and blogs. LeapFish is a great example of a light, easy-to-use multimedia search engine.