Real-Time Search vs. Google: Both Win

Real-time search is all the rage these days. But which engine is best, and how does the flavor of the month stack up against plain ol’ Google? MG Siegler of TechCrunch set out to find out, searching a batch of engines for a recent occurrence: the damage the space shuttle suffered on its way into orbit. He typed “Space Shuttle” into each engine, figuring it was what most people would likely type. Here’s what he found:

Google’s first result was a news story on the item, though the non-news posts were generic background. Twitter’s real-time search produced a bunch of irrelevant tweets. Tweetmeme was OK, provided it was set to the default “best match” setting. And Scoopler was a real winner, mixing live results and popular content. Seigler’s conclusion? If you can marry traditional link crawling to real-time results, “the combo is pretty killer.” (More search engine stories.)