You might have seen it in action by now, but Google has now started inserting real time streams into relevant search pages. In addition to that they now have more access to Facebook users messages, in part through Facebook’s recent privacy policy changes, Google can now supposedly include status messages of Facebook users. Any advantages rival Bing might have had is now gone. This is a big play for Google.

What does is mean for Small Businesses?

It will take some time for us to truly understand how Real Time search is being implemented to really predict when it appears on pages. I am betting that Google will be modifying its application as more userdata comes in. What we can expect is that time sensitive topics are going to include these Real Time search streams, which means that businesses have another method of grabbing attention.

What will be interesting to see is what happens when bad publicity causes a surge in searches – you might be looking at a continual stream of negative reactions like never seen before. If your business has not yet immersed themselves with Social Media, now is the time to do so. It will be critical to reputation management.

Also, Social Media users, or in other words, just about everybody, get more influence. Imagine if a group of users organize themselves, say, to protest something. If they manage to penetrate google’s search pages, they will be able to create some interesting attention. Keeping a good reputation is more important than ever, because managing it across social networks was hard enough, now you might have to contend with real time search results as well – removing the buffer that gives you time to react.

For the SEO enthusiasts, with another rich element added to the page, regular webpages will be pushed down further for certain search queries.

For the spamming enthusiasts…you are no doubt going to try and see if you can manipulate streams based while targeting the latest search trends, without having to do all the work of ranking your pages.