At OneRiot we deliver socially relevant search results, fast. The stuff that people are buzzing about, right now; the news they want to find, right this second. This is the realtime web, and in order for a search engine to accurately reflect that web, its results must be as informative as they are reflective of the terms most current meaning.
For example, if you searched for “Champions League Final” on OneRiot this morning, you probably found previews of the game, tactics and team sheets. But if you search for “Champions League Final” this afternoon you’ll find post-match analysis, videos of the goals, and interviews with key players.
Same search query, different time - and results that change to reflect what people are buzzing about right now.
Traditional search engines struggle to surface these fresh, socially relevant search results. They index the web based on factors like links between webpages, which take time to build up. As a consequence, their search results tend to surface highly referenced resources like Wikipedia pages or official websites. Dependable stuff, but not necessarily reflective of what people are buzzing about right now.
OneRiot indexes the web in an entirely new way – by harnessing the power of the realtime social web. When people share a link on Twitter, Digg or other social sharing services, they are signaling that it is of interest to them right now. OneRiot takes that as a signal to index a particular page on the web. We also look at other “social signals” like the number of retweets or comments that a link has generated, and add some special measures such as “velocity” (is the link “hotter” right now than it was 2 mins ago, etc). All of these combine (with others) to help us create a realtime socially relevant index of the web. The end result is a search experience that allows users to find new, fresh, relevant search results – reflecting what people are buzzing about right now.
Of course, when people start buzzing about different things, our search results change to keep up with shifting interests. Here’s a pro tip: our search results pages let you know when new, fresher, more relevant results emerge. If you search for “Champions League Final” and keep the tab open all day, you can track the top results as they shift from match previews to post-match analysis. Try it. We’d love to know what you think.
[...] New blog post: Match it Up: Realtime Web & Realtime Search http://blog.oneriot.com/content/2009/05/match-it-up-realtime-web-realtime-search/ [...]