A recent Nielsen report reveals some interesting information regarding mobile trends. The study covers the mobile usage data of over 60,000 mobile subscribers gathered and analyzed by the Nielsen Company.

For starters, the report found that African-Americans use around 1,300 minutes each month, which is more than any other demographic. Hispanics are next using 826 minutes each month. The Asians/Pacific Islanders use approximately 692 minutes per month, and somewhat surprisingly, Whites are last since they use only 647 minutes on a monthly basis.

In terms of texting, African-Americans and Hispanics still rank the highest. They send and receive 780 and 767 texts respectively. Whites are next using roughly 566 texts per month. Lastly, Asians/Pacific Islanders send and receive only 384 texts monthly.

In addition, the report found that women in the U.S. talk more on cell phones than men do. Women actually talk 22 percent more than men do, which will do nothing but add to the constant teasing of women being talkers. Also, women send or receive 601 text messages, while the average man sends or receives 447 texts each month.

Not surprisingly, the largest group of texters is teenagers. They send or receive an average of 2,779 messages per month. Next, the 18-24-year old bracket sends or receives 1,299 per month. Thirdly, the 25-34-year old age group uses approximately 592 text messages in a month.

While this data further proves that mobile is growing, it also indicates some other notable mobile trends. First of all, Om Malik of GigaOM wrote about one point of interest involving how users are changing. According to him, society is trending toward not talking on the phone.

It’s not that communication is dying, but instead, other forms of communication are becoming more popular than talking on the phone. When you think about it, everything from informal chats to business deals is done through alternative forms of communication. The advent of instant messaging, email, Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms will only increase these other methods.

Based upon these mobile trends, what direction do see society heading?

In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Google CEO Eric Schmidt predicted that young adults would need to change their names in order to protect their reputations. Since social media and the Web are gaining stronger influence in people’s lives, he believes this will be a natural solution moving forward.

“I don’t believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time,” said Schmidt to the WSJ.

Does this seem like an odd solution coming from Google’s chief executive? Many people across the Web think so since Google collects valuable user information and makes it available. Read Write Web, who first drew attention to this statement, suggested that parents give their children shortened names since they would have to change them down the line anyway.

TechCrunch refers to the idea as “downright pointless.” In addition, the always intriguing Gawker points out that Google’s CEO has “the scariest vision of the future of privacy.”

WebProNews also caught up with college student Andy Norris, who calls the concept a “cop out” on the search and advertising giant’s part and says, “Google should be able to do better than that.”

Privacy issues related to Google are nothing new, but it appears that consumer concern for them is growing. What are your thoughts regarding this proposed solution from Google’s CEO? Do you find it ironic coming from one of the most powerful technology companies?

The second annual Mimecast Cloud Adoption Survey conducted by Loudhouse offers some promising statistics in the adoption of cloud computing. Specifically, it found that 51 percent of businesses in both the US and the UK are using some form of cloud computing service.

The survey polled over 500 IT decision-makers in the two countries and saw that 74 percent of businesses using cloud services have noticed relief internally. What’s more, 73 percent believe cloud services have decreased their infrastructure costs, and 57 percent said their security has improved on the cloud.

Incidentally, cloud computing management company RightScale also announced this month that its customer cloud infrastructure spend has increased 1,000 percent from June 2009 to June 2010. It credits the increase to the following reasons: the number of cloud servers in use by its customers, the servers running for longer periods of time, and the customers using larger servers.

Another indicator of cloud computing growth is that Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, projects cloud service revenue to reach $68.3 billion this year.

Although these statistics show dramatic growth in the transition to the cloud, many businesses are still fearful of making the move. They are concerned about the security and privacy of their sensitive data, the sustainability of cloud service providers, and potentially high bandwidth costs.

Despite the concerns, multiple federal agencies in the US are embracing cloud computing, including the departments of defense and energy. The Securities and Exchange Commission is adopting cloud computing as well. Although the government is aware that concerns are present, it hopes they will be resolved before the 10-year transition is complete.

To alleviate some of these issues associated with the cloud, Gartner’s Global IT Council for Cloud Services constructed six rights and one responsibility for consumers and providers. If implemented, Gartner said these standards would be beneficial for businesses and providers, and also make the transition to the cloud smoother.

What is your view on cloud computing? Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, or is it the other way around?

Fortunately, online retailers are beginning to see the economy bounce back. According to Ryan Gibson, the Vice President of Marketing at The Rimm-Kaufman Group, online retailers are seeing improvements in conversion rates.

As the economy continues to turn around, there are some elements that retailers should apply to better leverage the comeback. From a paid search perspective, Gibson recommends that retailers update their keywords based on incoming inventory.

During the recession, many retailers cut back on their inventory. Now that the economy is starting to improve, they are ordering more products. Gibson says retailers need to make sure that their new inventory is represented in paid search. He also adds that retailers need to optimize pages to guarantee that they are found in the search engines. Ultimately, no one will benefit if the new inventory cannot be found.

Gibson also tells WebProNews that The Rimm-Kaufman Group is adding products. In the past, the company focused primarily on paid search. As Gibson explains, it is now adding an attribution management component that will help its clients understand what is happening outside of paid search. RKG will talk with clients about the data it collects and help them build an attribution model.

Upon many expectations, Facebook announced its new location feature this week called Places. Location services such as Foursquare and Gowalla have become increasingly popular over the last year and now Facebook is joining the hype.

The feature is called Places and lets users share where they are, find out who is around them, and check out other events and services taking places in the surrounding area. In addition, users can check-in to places that already exist, add new places, and tag other people.

Facebook entering the geolocation market comes as no surprise, especially since it attempted to purchase Foursquare earlier this year. What is a bit surprising is the fact that Foursquare, Gowalla, Booyah, and Yelp are all partnering with Facebook and will be integrated into Places. Many people are wondering what will happen to these standalone services now that Facebook is in the game. Can they survive?

Early reactions from people still indicate strong support for them. For example, Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley tweeted that yesterday was the services “biggest day ever in terms of new user signups.”

Privacy is another issue that is raising concerns about Places. Facebook has had its share of privacy mishaps and it looks like Places will not be an exception. The primary issue is that a user’s check-ins will appear by default on his profile, in the news feed, and in the activity stream for the place in which he checked in. Also, by default, friends can check-in other friends without seeking permission or approval.

Although Facebook allows its users to customize their settings to their own preference, the ACLU has already spoken out about these concerns.

What is your take on Facebook Places? Do you think other location services will be able to compete with Facebook? What about privacy – do these issues concern you?

Facebook Places is currently available in the U.S. on the most recent version of Facebook’s iPhone application and through touch.facebook.com, if your mobile browser supports HTML5 and geolocation. The social network said it would expand the feature to other countries and other mobile platforms in the near future.

Although it’s only 6 years old, Facebook has reached a considerable level of success. It is the largest social network, and just last month, it announced that it had more than 500 million users. Not many companies have this much success in such a short period of time, and those that do, make up an elite group.

Incidentally, another company that is included in this select group is Google. Although Facebook has been likened to the search and advertising giant on many occasions, the list of similarities might get a little longer in the near future. Speculation has it that Google is in the process of developing a Facebook rival called “Google Me.”

Google has had several failed attempts in social with products such as Sidewiki, Wave, and Buzz. However, there are no signs that it is giving up in its quest for social success, especially, since it recently acquired Slide and Jambool.

Even if it is developing the rumored “Google Me,” could it really compete with Facebook? As we all know, Google is clearly the leader in both search and advertising. So, is social the only element it is missing?

WebProNews spoke with Ed DeRosa, News Editor with the Thoroughbred Times, who said he did not believe Google could create a product that could legitimately compete with Facebook.

“If you’re already on Facebook, I don’t really see any migration to another platform that Google would offer. We’ve seen what Facebook did to MySpace – they crushed them,” said DeRosa.

On the other side of the equation, since Facebook has the social component mastered, is it trying to extend its success to other areas? It already has access to valuable user information. In addition, there is speculation that it could expand its advertising platform to other sites, which could pose a direct threat to Google’s AdSense. All that said, is Facebook the one that is trying to outpace Google?

Emily Sandford of Office Suites PLUS tells WPN that she believes the two companies will grow more and more similar with time. She said, “It’s really going to be an interesting fight to watch.”

What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you believe Google wants to be a viable social competitor to Facebook? Or, is the social network looking to take on the search and advertising giant?

Quality score has a certain stigma to it that often scares people away. According to David Szetela of Clix Marketing, most people make quality score a lot more difficult than it actually is. He says it is, essentially, a way for Google to reward advertisers for writing good ads.

Because Google cannot tell every advertiser all the factors that go into quality score, it often results in confusion. However, if Google did reveal this information, advertisers would get an unfair advantage. As he explains to WebProNews, there are so many other elements that are involved with quality score that the aforementioned factors play a minor role.

Google uses quality score as a rewards system since it wants to provide relevant answers to search queries. The advertisers that are able to help it do this not only receive a better quality score, but also receive a lower price for their ad position.

“Basically, Google rewards advertisers with better quality score and a lower price to do what they should be doing anyway,” says Szetela.

He goes on to say that good quality score has two parts: great ads and acceptable landing pages. People think that by improving their landing page, their quality score will improve as well. Szetela points out that this is not the case. Instead, he says the landing page component of quality score can only hurt, not help.

Overall, having great ads are the key to having good quality score. Szetela recommends including the following elements in an ad:

1.    Keyword in text (preferably in headline)
2.    Reader addressed in first person
3.    Features/Benefits
4.    Call to action

Are you using this information to help improve your quality score?

Facebook, Twitter, and Instant Messaging have become natural parts of our everyday life. They also play key roles in many businesses. But is there a downside? Can they dominate too much time?

We all know that each of these platforms can be extremely valuable to business. However, many businesses do not allow their employees to use them due to a lack of productivity. For this reason, WebProNews would like to extend a challenge to you to see how long you can go without Facebook, Twitter, and Instant Messaging.

We are, by no means, suggesting that you drop these platforms entirely. Instead, we would like to see if you notice any changes to your personal well-being, your business, and your level of productivity.

For starters, you could try going without the 3 mentioned platforms, or any other technologies that consume vast amounts of your time, for 1-2 hours each day. When you turn everything off for the first time, it will probably seem way too quiet. In addition, you will likely struggle with the urge to share something.

Once these instincts pass, chances are, you will develop a stronger focus. Not only could you dedicate more time and energy toward one project, but you could also generate a greater appreciation for what you do. What’s more, you may find yourself developing new ideas and strategies that could take your business to the next level.

So, are you up for the challenge? How long can you go without Facebook, Twitter, and Instant Messaging? And, are you more productive for doing so?

Eye tracking is fascinating to think about in and of itself. Interestingly enough, Shari Thurow of Omni Marketing Interactive spoke with WebProNews about eye tracking research. According to her, the research endorses universal search.

As she explains, marketers need to ask themselves if their videos, images, and graphs are doing their jobs on pages. These elements should be reinforcing the brand and pointing people in the right direction. If not, she advises marketers to conduct keyword research to determine if the users even want the universal elements.

However, if users search for an item such as video, they need to see that video on the landing page. Thurow takes it one step further and says that they need to see it above the fold. This user behavior is referred to as “scent for information” and marketers need to validate it.

Thurow also discusses information architecture and, surprisingly, points out that most SEOs aren’t good at it.

“The reason SEOs are terrible information architects is, mostly, [because] they don’t see the big picture,” she says.

Users often have to browse multiple pages on a website because the search engines are not always accurate. Thurow calls this action navigating, not querying. Unfortunately, many SEOs still spend most of their time focusing on querying. She says SEOs aren’t objective and don’t see navigation in the way that it should be seen.

On the other hand, information architects focus more on navigation and ignore querying. Although a balance between the two is ideal, it is not likely. Thurow says if SEOs and information architects work together, a good website could be produced.

Are you addressing these eye tracking and information architecture needs?

There are many ways in which people can push content including sitemaps, RSS, and XML. Each of these methods provide vast opportunities for getting written text, video, podcasts, and more out on the Web. According to Amanda Watlington, Owner of Searching for Profit, “There’s not any reason today to have your content hidden under a barrel.”

Speaking on sitemaps specifically, Watlington tells WebProNews that people still do not understand how to use them, even though they have been around for 5 years. She has recently encountered multiple sites that have thousands of pages that are not getting picked up by the engines. The problem is that many of their pages have not even been visited.

To correct this, she suggests that site owners rethink their strategy for pushing content. In other words, it is better to have less content that is high quality and link-heavy, than to have lots of content that the spider cannot see.

Watlington goes on to offer advice for situations pertaining to when a company makes changes to its site. She says by pushing a sitemap with content that has new urls or urls that it wants to be found through 301 redirects, the company essentially makes the spider notice the changes faster. She compares this process to sending out change-of-adddress cards in bulk.

“One of the most important things is to use the sitemaps as a strategic tool, not as a blunt club,” says Watlington.

Sitemaps are very powerful and useful, if utilized correctly. Are you creatively using sitemaps to push your content?

On a side note, Watlington also advises marketers to make improvements to their site in order to take advantage of the “early bird” opportunities that will occur when the economy recovers completely.

The Web has drastically changed the way business is conducted. Fortunately, it not only provides many new opportunities, but it also, simplifies certain tasks. According to David Meerman Scott, Author of World Wide Rave and New Rules of Marketing and PR, there were essentially three ways to generate attention before the Web.

As he explains to WebProNews, these ways were buying advertising, the media, which he calls begging, and a sales force. These tactics work well for generating attention offline, but online, it’s a different story. Generating attention online requires marketers to create content just like a publisher.

Scott says the old rules make it hard to generate attention. However, the new rules allow any organization to earn attention, if it creates valuable information. He points out that organizations need to stop thinking like marketers, advertisers, and public relations specialists, and instead, think like publishers.

Once businesses create content, what can they then do to get people to share it? According to Scott, most companies talk about their product, which is not what users want to hear. He advises businesses to create content for their target market, or as he likes to call it, their buyer personas.

“It gets an organization away from talking about themselves in an egotistical way,” says Scott.

In reality, consumers only care about themselves and solving their problems. As a result, Scott suggests that marketers create individualized content for each of their buyer personas.

Once this is done, he recommends creating trigger points to encourage users to share. These trigger points could involve contests, humor, blog posts, videos, and many other ideas. If the content is good, then users will naturally share.

Lastly, Scott says marketers need to point users back to a place where some type of action can take place. Once again, as long as the content is valuable, it will draw users back to make a purchase.

Are you creating valuable content for your buyer personas?

Although the term “digital asset optimization” sounds a bit intimidating, it really is not. According to Chris Boggs, the SEO Director at Rosetta, it is actually an old idea that has recently gained new interest.

As he explains to WebProNews, digital asset optimization is essentially the optimization of non-text content within web pages and the role it plays in search engine rankings. In other words, it pertains to content such as video, images, and even rich, Internet applications like Flash.

This type of content is becoming increasingly popular in certain verticals including retail and health care. For instance, “how-to” videos that explain a process or provide insight into a condition are continually growing in value for consumers.

“There are a lot of reasons that people may look to the Internet and do a type of search that lends itself better to a video result, or an image result, or even an interactive application,” says Boggs.

He goes on to say that the search engines have recently updated their landscape to allow more of this non-text content in the top pages of search results. Although people often view digital asset optimization as a way to get additional listings in search results, Boggs points out that there is a better way to utilize it.

By taking a holistic approach, he says users have the opportunity to have all their web pages gain rankings. Since it gives users a greater chance of ranking, it is very important that they have non-text content on their web pages. In many cases, Boggs says the non-text content is described as a web page in the search results.

Are you taking advantage of the opportunities of digital asset optimization?

Are you getting the most from your keyword research? There are many tools that people can master, but to truly advance, people need to find the keywords their customers are looking for, their competitor’s keywords, and the long tail terms that draw in money and traffic.

Taylor Pratt of Raven Internet Marketing Tools talks to WebProNews and offers some advanced advice regarding keyword research. First of all, he explains a trick that users can do with the Google’s AdWords tool. He tells users to conduct a logged out Google search, copy the url, and paste it into the AdWords tool. This will then scan the top 10 results and provide keyword recommendations. Pratt says users can take it even further and use this trick with Amazon, Wikipedia, eBay pages, directories, and more.

Unfortunately, many people often become biased toward certain keywords and, essentially, push for them to win even when they are not performing. Pratt suggests that users take the keyword list from their analytics package, export it, and then block out all the keywords. By doing this, users will only be able to see the metrics, which will determine the keywords that are converting and performing.

Many times, the C-level suite is guilty of showing partiality toward particular keywords. To reach them, Pratt says marketers should talk to them in a way that they understand. In other words, tell them if a long tail term is the one that is bringing in the money and traffic as opposed to the one they simply like.

Pratt also discusses another trick users can do with Google analytics. He says if users look at their keywords, there is a second drop-down menu. From that menu, if users select the “landing page” option, they will see a list of landing pages from which a specific keyword visited their site. This will also show how the keyword is performing. With this information, users can determine what they should be targeting.

In regards to advice for marketers doing mobile paid search, Pratt believes marketers should find out which action terms people are searching for. He goes on to point out that marketers should think about the user, since mobile users know exactly what they want when they search.

Are you taking your keyword research to the next level?

WebProNews attends and covers many different conferences including the Online Marketing Summit. The founder of the event, Aaron Kahlow, tells WPN that OMS is different than other industry events since its primary focus is education.

As he explains, OMS plans its content around the audience, which is typically made up of 3 types of people. The first type involves marketers who are trying to bridge the gap between online and offline marketing.

The second type includes online marketing specialists who are trying to get better at what they do. Lastly, the third type is made up of online marketers who specialize in one area but want to expand their knowledge in other areas.

Kahlow says both the Online Marketing Summit and the Online Marketing Institute aim to give users longevity with their training. They provide training in social media, search, email, demand creation, analytics, usability, integrated marketing, and more. He goes on to say that they validate consultants to help them execute their brands at a higher level.

In addition, OMS is offering training workshops in several different cities. Upcoming locations include Orlando, Miami, and San Francisco. For more information, visit their site.

Facebook has a constantly evolving advertising platform, and according to Addie Conner of Avenue100, it provides many new opportunities for advertisers. She tells WebProNews that Facebook reaches an entirely different segment of audience than Google reaches.

Since Google is all about search, people are actively querying for information. On the other hand, Facebook is completely “demand creation.” As Conner explains, Facebook allows advertisers to reach an audience that they couldn’t reach unless they existed across all Google’s content network and all the other content networks.

Google just doesn’t have the data that Facebook has. The social network has access to its users’ demographics, which is very valuable to advertising. Conner says the data is accurate as well.

With Facebook, advertisers can create applications and send users to it. The app engages with users in a way that is unique to them and also unique to the product. Conner calls it, “a different engagement than you are able to get on any other platform.”

She goes on to say that Facebook is actively working to make its platform better for both users and advertisers.

“Every Monday, SEO is a new industry.” Those are the words of long time search industry specialist Bruce Clay. He tells WebProNews that search results are changing, links are changing, and social media is impacting search in many different areas.

First of all, although social is growing in popularity and value, Clay says it is still hard to determine the extent of its impact on search. Both people and businesses are still learning how to use it. He believes there are two different camps on social. The first is similar to PPC since users can leverage ads in their social networks. This way can be thought of as an ad network, and it allows users to drive traffic and raise awareness.

He classifies the second camp as being closer to SEO since it can be used to encourage people to link to you. In addition, it can be used for reputation management. Just as SEO and PPC are more effective together, using both camps of social media are equally important. He says marketers will miss out on valuable opportunities if they do not utilize social media.

Linking is another area that has changed. As Clay discusses, there are several ways to do links such as stimulating people socially, begging for links, and being a link magnet. Social media is tied to the aforementioned stimulating people for links and also to link begging, since it could provide a target through a social relationship. As he points out, link magnets are the best method because marketers create great content that people want to link to.

Although link networks are also included in linking practices, Clay believes they could become a serious problem. These networks allow one user or company to have some level of control over a group of different sites. Although he has no direct inclination from Google, he believes the search giant will crack down on this practice. He thinks Google has no choice but to either lighten up on its standards, which he believes is wrong, or enforce stronger regulation. If link networks were eliminated, he says there would be a “massive change in the linking structure and rankings.”

In regards to changes in search results, Clay recalls that Google offers more options, maps, and more in the SERPs. He predicts that searchers will be able to selectively turn on live feeds and engagements objects (video, images, etc.). Google has also made efforts pertaining to search intent and behavior. With linking practices changing as well, he believes we will see many new developments in search results. Additionally, he says these changes will continue and traditional SEO will lose its effectiveness.

Are you accommodating these changes?

Social media is all about engaging with people whether it be clients, friends, or relatives. As Li Evans of Serengeti Communications explains, “Everybody likes to share, and they like to share a story.”

She goes on to tell WebProNews that businesses are just now grasping how they can use social media. If they create valuable content, she says people will share it, which will expand their reach.

Contrary to some beliefs, effective social media marketing is a lot more than simply having a Facebook page. Evans says businesses need to, first of all, understand where their audience is. Although Facebook and Twitter have exploded in popularity, it doesn’t mean that your audience is there. If this is the case, these platforms will not be effective for your business.

It could be that message boards and forums are where your audience is. Although these areas have been around since before the term social media was even coined, Evans believes they are still very powerful, have a large reach, and rank in search engines. Other effective platforms include ratings and review services and location-based sites.

Secondly, businesses need to understand what their resources are. It is important to realize what you are capable of doing before you jump in. Otherwise, you could quickly get overwhelmed, which could lead to failure.

Thirdly, businesses have to listen to what their audience is saying. Just as businesses need to understand their resources before embracing social, they need to do a lot of listening too. If not, Evans says it could be compared to petting a shark. Businesses should know what is acceptable and what is not before they embark on a social media campaign.

Once a business applies these 3 steps, she says it can build a social media strategy.

The explosion of social media has given consumers a strong desire to know what is happening in real-time. Real-time search engines, such as OneRiot, have responded to this desire. WebProNews spoke with Tobias Peggs to find out how the search engine is providing a real-time solution for consumers.

As he explains, real-time content doesn’t exist very long and contains a lot of noise. For this reason, OneRiot takes the process of filtering it very seriously. The search engine developed a ranking algorithm called PulseRank, which ranks content in a way that reflects the current social buzz.

Peggs also says OneRiot pays very close attention to the content publishers and their credibility. For the people who create meaningful posts, the search engine applies more authority. On the flip side, the people who typically post spammy content will not rank very well.

So, what opportunities exist for marketers? According to Peggs, if you look at search behavior across all traditional search engines, you will find somewhere between 20-40 percent of searchers reveal an intent for the real-time information that real-time search engines offer. Given those percentages, he says it produces a need for monetization.

However, it is a challenge since an ad that tries to prompt a purchase is not relevant to the consumer’s immediate need. OneRiot created the first advertising network for the real-time Web that includes fresh ads from media companies. Peggs says the ads provide additional value to the overall consumer experience.

Are you utilizing these opportunities?

Since SEO is constantly changing, how can SEOs determine the most important areas of focus? As Matt Bailey of SiteLogic Marketing tells WebProNews, the foundation has to be strong in order to be built upon.  For this reason, he believes the fundamentals are critical to SEO success.

Content is just one of the fundamental areas of SEO. Not only is the content itself important, but the structure of the content is also important. Bailey says content needs to be scalable, readable, and allow users to understand the content on the rest of the page by simply looking at the headline. This is significant because numerous studies show that the majority of people scan content instead of reading it.

There have been many recent debates pertaining to long content versus short content. People often say they tried blogging, Facebook, or Twitter and found that they didn’t work. However, Bailey believes users need to examine their efforts to see if they are utilizing them correctly.

“The what is going to change daily. The why will never change,” he says.

He goes on to say that if you have a purpose, the “what” doesn’t matter and can always be applied.

Marketers also struggle with the challenge of creating content for both users and search engines. Bailey says the key to this dilemma is in the analytics. For example, it is very possible to have the right ranking with the wrong page. As a result, marketers need to look at their analytics to see which metrics work. He tells WPN that marketers can celebrate when they determine what is profitable, not when they rank high.

Although there will be many more changes for SEO, the job of driving people to a destination will always be constant.

Are you focusing on getting the fundamentals right or are you distracted by the “shiny, new object syndrome”?

Since the majority of people have access to information at their fingertips, the need for real-time has become increasingly popular. As a result, real-time search engines are popping up everywhere to try to fulfill this need.

WebProNews spoke with Jack Moffitt, the CTO for Collecta, about the challenges these real-time engines face. The main idea behind real-time search engines is getting data as soon as it is published. Moffitt says this is challenge for three reasons.

First of all, it’s a challenge because the real-time engines have to convince publishers to send them their data. Secondly, they have to make sure that they get the data quickly. In other words, real-time search engines need publishers to push content to them instead of pulling it themselves.

The third reason it is a challenge is due to user privacy issues. Facebook data, for instance, is private, which means Collecta and other real-time engines cannot use it. In addition, there is the issue of users changing their minds about their data. Sometimes users go back and delete their data or decide to make it private. This creates a challenge for real-time search engines since technologies that distribute these types of action do not exist.

Despite these challenges, real-time search engines are growing in value and will only improve with time with the introduction of new tools and developments.