Google’s Real Time search, the next generation
Google has launched real time search in some of the high volume searches. For example, searching ‘Haiti Earthquake‘ will look like the following:
The following was said by Google’s Amit Singhal, a Google Fellow, who led development of real-time search:
“You earn reputation, and then you give reputation. If lots of people follow you, and then you follow someone–then even though this [new person] does not have lots of followers,” his tweet is deemed valuable because his followers are themselves followed widely, Singhal says. It is “definitely, definitely” more than a popularity contest, he adds.
“One user following another in social media is analogous to one page linking to another on the Web. Both are a form of recommendation,” Singhal says. “As high-quality pages link to another page on the Web, the quality of the linked-to page goes up. Likewise, in social media, as established users follow another user, the quality of the followed user goes up as well.”
It is a complex algorithm Google is using to decipher the authoritative tweets to the spam tweets. Singhal also explained how hashtags in Twitter might be a signal of a lower quality tweet. The Technology Review said hashtags “serve as red flags to lower tweet quality and attract spam-like content.”
So it seems social media’s influence on SEO is ever increasing. As one-way links are becoming difficult to find the need for producing quality content and being recognised as leaders in your industry is paramount. Have your followers in mind with every blog post, tweet and Facebook interaction, as they are going to be the key if you ever want to dominate the search engines.
January 15th, 2010 at 7:27 am
Great post but I am curious about why would the quality of the tweet be lowered if you use a hashtag? What is the reasoning behind that?
January 15th, 2010 at 7:46 am
Hi Marianna
Bearing in mind this is a very new algorithm so my knowledge is still growing in this area but it seems that Google is devaluing hash tags because spammers use them to attract attention. Hash tags can be used to bring maximum exposure to a tweet but it seems the spammers have got onto the bandwagon, hence Google is taking a pro-active step to red flag them. My advice is to use hash tags sparingly, I wouldn’t right them off, just keep them as a last resort.