How Google ranks tweets and insights on real-time search
Just read an article by WebProNews called "Google reveals factors for ranking tweets". Below is a few key points and a bit of reflection.
Bing on the number of followers
Here's what Bing said on the matter: "If someone has a lot of followers, his/her Tweet may get ranked higher. If a tweet is exactly the same as other Tweets, it will get ranked lower". But it's not just about how many followers you get. It's about how reputable those followers are. In other words if I have a lot of spammers following me, it's bad. If Oprah follows me, I'm good ;).
Google on real-time rankings
According to WebProNews Google's real-time ranking system is similar to its link-popularity system. As in the case with Bing, the more authority your followers have, the more authority is transfered to you and your tweets.
Here's a quick note for those who over-uses hashtags. According to the article, hashtags are considered spam-y by Google. So refrain from using them too much. I was actually going to write a whitepaper on the Art of using Hashtags. Now I'll have to wait until I know more on the matter. I'm sure hashtags are here to stay, they are fulfilling a purpose. It's just the matter of balancing and using them properly.
Real-time search going forward
Both Google and Twitter teams collaborate on real-time search and there's still much to do. The key is to understand that they strive for relevancy of real-time search results. Link-popularity analogy is another great lesson. And although we've been talking about Twitter = "real-time search", it's not the only source of real-time data. More on real-time search on Google.
Tags: bing, Google, real-time search, search marketing