Oneupweb : Google Updates Search Results for Twitter Accounts

Google’s decided to switch up the way they present Tweets in search results from Twitter accounts. Previously, Google presented a series of Tweets under the Twitter domain. Users now see the latest Tweet right in search results (that is, if it’s recent enough). Here’s an example:

Since Google has access to Twitter’s massive firehouse of data, it’s able to update search results in real-time as seen here:

Looking at this result, you can see three links. The first (SteveBulger) goes directly to my Twitter account. For the second, a hashtag for #Winning, Google sends me to their Realtime search vertical, which displays recent Tweets with the same hashtag. Looking simultaneously at the same hashtag results on Twitter.com, they didn’t line up at all, and personally I’d prefer Google send me right to the source, but what do you expect? And lastly, Google includes a link directly to the blog post I included in my Tweet.

This Tweet was added to Google’s search results two minutes after posting. There have been reports that Google updates results in as few as 10 seconds. Not bad, Google, not bad.

What I’m not 100% sure about is when Google considers a post to be stale. From the looks of it, it appears to be around the two hour mark. Based on some tests I did, it seems that once a Tweet is older than two hours, instead of displaying the latest post, Google elects to just serve up a general description that includes the name of the person and their Twitter handle, as seen here with our own OneUpNewsie:

You can chalk this one up to just one of many recent Google updates aligned with their mission to provide a more social, real-time search experience.