I don't want to even pretend to claim I know everything when it comes to the web and social media - but I do think I know enough to write the following post!
I want to share my thoughts about where I see the web, and social media, moving in the very near future.
I don't think it's too difficult to see that Google is scrambling to get a handle on this live search thing. Twitter has been the leader in live search by providing live Twitter streams (conversations) based on your search phrase (visit http://search.twitter.com)
I see live search playing a major role in the way people search for and find information. After all, most people want to know what's happening "right now" and when you search on Google, you don't get that.
Facebook is another social networking site that is moving toward the live search concept as well. They (being Facebook) has recently updated their site to provide Facebook Fan Pages, which follows the same concept as Twitter in updating followers.
I don't think it's too difficult to believe that Facebook is now hard at work trying to build their own live streaming search engine as well.
Anyway, where does all of this leave Google?
I predict that Google, being the current leader in online properties, with have to either acquire Twitter and Facebook (either / or / both), or find a way to build their own live social streaming site AND create a search engine for those streams.
And since Google doesn't currently have anything close to something like Twitter and Facebook, I think they are in a position a lot like the Google Android mobile phone scenario where they are late to the market and no where near as popular as the iPhone.
People are spending most of their time online either on Twitter and Facebook - and this is going to be something that Google will have to address either through acquisition, or building a competing platform.
Either way - the future of the web and social media, as I see it anyway, is currently in the hands of Facebook and Twitter, not Google!
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