If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the folks at the online social networking service Twitter may be at risk of experiencing dangerously swelled heads.
First, Facebook, arguably the most influential online social networking site, redesigned its site that allowed users to post their status updates in a more Twitter-like style. That move caused much controversy with Facebook users, but most of the hemming and hawing has apparently died down.
Now, Internet search giant Google has rolled out their own Twitterish online social networking search service. Right now it’s called Google Search Options—a rather clunky name and one that will probably change as the service evolves. But what does the new online social networking service do? The most interesting feature is the one that gives Internet searchers the opportunity to filter search results by time.
Here’s why that’s important. Normally, if you did a search for Greece on Google, you’d get the top results like the Wikipedia page for Greece and possibly the homepage of the Greece tourist board. But what if you just want to know what kind of online social networking buzz is going on regarding Greece? Google search options lets you choose results that were just created or changed recently—within the last 24 hours, for example. Here’s Google’s instructional video for Search Options:
If you’re familiar with Twitter and Twitter search online social networking services, then you’ll probably be comfortable with these new search features. So does this mean Google is scared of Twitter? Probably not, at least not yet. But if Google is now taking cues from the online social networking micro-blogging site, that just shows just how useful Twitter and online social networking search is gearing up to be.
