Bring Back Google Realtime Search: See Real Time Twitter Search Results In Google

Google had a very interesting feature called “Realtime search” which showed latest tweets directly on www.google.com/realtime. The feature was immensely helpful because it allowed me to see the latest tweets of emerging events in real time, directly from a Google search result page.

But during mid 2011, Google killed and completely dropped its Real time search feature. Initially, Google said that their engineers are working on to incorporate Google Plus into real time search results but in reality, Google’s deal with Twitter had expired and Google realtime search was taken offline.

If you don’t know what Google real time search is all about, watch the following video:

Bring Back Real Time Twitter Results in Google Search

If you want to get back Google real time search, try the Hashplug extension for Google Chrome.

The extension does what it says, it replaces Google’s Knowledge graph column with real time results from Twitter. New tweets are shown automatically, you can even reply, retweet or favorite a given tweet.

This is great and makes me more productive. For example, when I am writing about a breaking story and simultaneously researching it on Google, Twitter, Google News and other search engines, I can just look at my Google search result page and see the latest tweets that are revolving around that given topic. This frees me from switching browser tabs, or using desktop applications like TweetDeck for monitoring real time events or breaking news stories.

The extension keeps things simple but it can be improved in more ways than one.

For example, it would be great if there is a little “Compose tweet” button right at the top of the real time search result column. When I am reading those real time tweets, I can use that to compose and tweet something.

On another note, I would love a toggle button as well so that I can toggle and turn off the real time search feature when I don’t need it. Otherwise, the extension is a must have tool if you’re someone who lives and breathes in tweets and wants to see Twitter search results in Google homepage. 

Watch the following video to learn how it works:

Thanks Dinu.