Just read that Twitter might be approaching deals with Microsoft and Google to have Tweets and data from Twitter’s trending topics show up in search engines.  The fact that I found out about this Twitter news on Twitter is a telling example of just how powerful Twitter and other insta-information services are.

I found some interesting thoughts on the implications of these deals over on The Altimeter blog:

From their post:
•  Social Search to Serve Results Based On Time, Authority. Expect real time data to merge with existing search engines, as a result we should see Google Search and Bing to serve up search results based on: 1) Real time information based on what Twitter users are saying, including memes from trending topics, 2) Preference given to links and URLs that are tweeted by users with more followers or authority, 3) Geo location of tweets to influence search results.  As users seek “Thai Restaurants in San Mateo” location based tweets could provide additional context.  4) Eventually results will be served up by your friends.  Google has given a nod to serve up information based on your social graph (your friends) using Google Profile.
•  Consumers Influence Search Results. An even more amazing impact of these announcements is that for the first time, consumers will be able to directly impact web search results. Although companies spend thousands of marketing dollars controlling their search results by using Google’s advertising services, customers and competitors can quickly and cheaply impact search results using simple tools like Twitter.  Consumers, empowered using mobile devices as a publishing platform can link to content

Although Charlene Li and Jeremiah Owyang write from a marketer’s perspective, the integration of Twitter and other similar products into internet search-engines is a game changer not just for consumers and companies but for citizen and professional journalists as well.  Substitute consumers for  people and election scandal for "Thai Food"  and you've got some citizen-sourced news that has the potential to be seen by a much wider audience than ever before.

Will the ability to search for real-time content (aka Tweets) in Google lead to a perpetuation of misinformation?  Or, will it further empower citizens to engage with the news happening around them, especially when their footage or their tweet can kick directly to the top of a Google  or Bing search?  Will it be a boon or a challenge for professional newspaper journalists?  Imagine what it would have been like if Twitter was integrated with Google during the Iran Election controversy a few months ago.  A google search for "Iran" might have resulted in not just the Iran wikipedia article and a few news-stories, but also pictures, videos, and reactions from people recording the action and emotions right in front of them.  Even if you weren't on Twitter, you wouldn't have had to wait for CNN to tell you how Iranians felt, you would have read their reactions as a result in your search engine.

Instinctively, I assume there is something dangerous about Google searches being populated by people's real-time thoughts and reactions.  Something makes me wonder if real-time search will give the internet a mob-mentality where news becomes more a game of telephone and less an impartial report on the facts. In the case of big news or emergency, it might save lives, but it might also turn small incidents into big, messy ordeals as massive groups of self-proclaimed witnesses, analysts, and reporters supply an unending stream of information, rumor, and reaction.

But then I realize that my way of thinking about information might just be a little behind the times, after all, news isn't impartial no matter who it comes from.  Back in the day, newspapers gave you the news the day after it happened.  Then, the internet gave you the news a few hours after it happened.  Now, Twitter gives you news (or at least something like news) a few minutes after it happens.  Day-old news, even hour-old news now, is good only for analysis and editorials.

With real-time search and Twitter embedded into Bing and Google, it will be even harder than before for traditional news outlets to draw people to their internet news sites.  With real-time search, there will be even more competition to break a story first because everyone with a dream of internet stardom (aka most of us on Twitter) will be trying to do so too.  Lucky for the news industry though, accuracy will come at a premium; and the new real-time search capabilities will provide fantastic opportunities to source diverse interview subjects, write deeper news stories more quickly, and collaborate with citizens reporting the facts.  In a new internet environment filled with more rumor mills and 15-minutes-of-fame-seekers, the unique skill sets of professional journalists might just give the news industry a new competitive advangage, as long as they come up with the models and the agility to take advantage of it.

For more on real-time search and the web, check out this article over on Wired.