The battle for search continues to heat up as Twitter and Facebook find themselves in the middle of a tug-of-war between Microsoft and Google.

On Wednesday afternoon Microsoft was first to the press with their announcement at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco on Wednesday that their new Bing search engine will index both Facebook and Twitter updates.

In the Information Week article, Qi Lu and Yusuf Mehdi, SVP of the Microsoft’s online audience business, made the announcement.

“We are going to get access to all of the public Twitter information in real-time,” said Mehdi.

A beta of the new version of Bing with Twitter data, referred to by Mehdi as “Bing Wave Two,” should go live shortly. Facebook integration, he said, would come later.

You can view the new Bing app here, but I still prefer the Twitter interface for real-time search.

In a foreboding comment, he also stated, “Microsoft’s search goal of understanding user intent, an aim he likened to building “a mind reader.”

I’m not sure that’s the most positive statement for the VP’s to roll out. After all, it’s most common to refer to Microsoft as “The Borg.”

I’ll hand it to Microsoft though. Even though they don’t have a system in place yet, they made a good PR power play to bring more awareness to the Google competitor.

Google made a quick move too. Later in the day, they also announced their search engine would index Twitter’s content too. They didn’t say anything about Facebook, but they did trump the idea their new service would out-perform Bing by rendering faster results with greater accuracy. It wasn’t that long ago Google was rumored to buy Twitter which is now valued at $1 billion.

What was more intriguing for me was what happened after I read the press release.

Almost immediately after I saw the announcement on Twitter, I “retweeted” the news out to my followers and less than 15 minutes later a Google Alert arrived in my email’s inbox.

I monitor various keywords from Google and everytime someone enters a new topic with my name…boom…they send me an email. I monitor a number of topics of interest and it was surprising to see my Twitter comment work its way through Google so quickly for the first time.

This was an interesting announcement for both companies and the integration of this content gives significant credo to both social media services.

Real-time search is a hot topic right now. Unfortunately, after the balloon boy instance last week, I’m starting to question real-time information and still appreciate a journalist who checks his facts.

Although Twitter and Facebook content will now appear in both of the major search engines, I’m compelled to consider the entropy for both systems too.

As things get bigger and more information like Twitter and Facebook content floods the two search engines, how relevant and effective will search be in the future? Will it become too cluttered to find what you’re looking for?

Who knows, maybe there’s room for a new concept in search where some company comes up with a search engine for relative topics? Instead of being the borg, perhaps we’ll see search in the future that focuses only on specific interests alone.

Google still accounts for the majority references for search inquiries here at Times-News Online.

Last month, references from Google represented almost 20% of our online traffic, while Bing came in below Yahoo references at 3%. There’s no doubt Bing is stealing some of the audience and hopefully this competition will lead to a better user experience for everyone.

Which search engine do you prefer? Do you have a personal favorite?

Rockm

There’s a turf war brewing on the Internet as Google, Microsoft and Twitter duke it out for your attention. This battle is playing itself out in the technosphere and Google is likely to win the war, but never underestimate the underdogs.

Shifts on the Internet fault-line happen quickly.

In the past few months, Google has seen plenty of competition in a volley of new services.

This year, Twitter has become a trend-setter for real-time search and last month, Microsoft launched a serious contender with Bing.

To add insult to injury Yahoo finally gave up their search services, merging with Microsoft last week to potentially solidify a strategy to steal even more market share from Google.

Meanwhile, back on the Google campus they’re starting a new campaign aimed at Microsoft promoting their Google Chrome operating system, Google Wave (a collaborative email and productivity platform due this Fall) and most recently, a campaign aimed directly at Microsoft Word and Excel users – an initiative called “Going Google.”

What’s at risk here is quite simply your attention which translates into a king’s ransom of advertising dollars.

Recent news from Iran is intriguing and the most interesting aspect about this global topic is how social media services like Twitter and YouTube are helping to fuel a revolution.

Over the weekend, a major election in Iran between hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his opponent Mir Hossein Moussavi erupted with claims of voter fraud.

The election was Friday, but there really wasn’t too much online about the event until Sunday. That’s when I thought about turning on the television to feed my curiosity, but instead of switching on the tube, I decided to explore what people were saying on Twitter.

Twitter is a fascinating new Internet micro-blogging service that has caught my interest over the past several weeks and almost immediately I could see a firestorm brewing. In particular, Twitter users were criticizing CNN for lack of coverage about this important historical event.

User were posting short-messages using what is called a “hash-tag” method and writing comments with the phrase “#CNNfail” to complain about the lack of coverage. A search of this tag revealed thousands of protests.

Most people who question Twitter’s relevance wonder why anyone would use this service to inform others about breakfast, but it’s much more important than that because Twitter is reshaping the Internet with “real time searching.”

Twitter’s unique distinction is the ability to look up any subject and see what’s being said right now and by using the phrase “#CNNfail” before online comments, users probably influenced CNN’s coverage because the rest of the night was spent in features and debate about the situation.

When you sign up for a Twitter account, the home page has a Top 10 index of topics that are being discussed on Twitter. In a glance, you can see what the “Twitterverse” is talking about and right now, the buzz is all about Iran.

When using Twitter, you can only publish 140 characters of commentary, but that’s enough, because Twitter is an incredibly efficient channel for the ground war in this torn country. Students, protesters and reformers from Tehran are publishing messages via Twitter that point to cell phone photos, blogs, videos and all kinds of information from the inside out.

It only takes a few seconds for hundreds of new Twitter comments to pile in on your browser. As you refresh the screen new details are keeping the major media sites tuned in as photos of club-toting vigilantes on motorcycles beat citizens and even journalists lives are at risks as they attempt to cover this revolution.

Below are a couple of the recent street videos and be warned, these are both gripping and unsettling.

The government in Iran has made every attempt to shut down all reports revoking visas and shutting down sites like Friendster, Facebook and others. Their attempts to darken this breaking news story is futile though because the streets are in control of the media now and the regime will have a hard time keeping this one under cover.

It’s hard to keep up with all the information via Twitter, but the service provides a deluge of information to explore and it’s obvious the media giants are watching this channel with the rest of the world. Furthermore, CNN, Wired Magazine and New York Times all agree that Twitter has played a influential role in this current wave of political activism. See the links below, or visit Twitter today and click on the search topic #Iranelection to view what’s happening…right now.

Twitter’s growth has been in an meteoric upward graph for the past several months.

They were hoping to take a break last night to run some maintenance for about 90 minutes. However, Twitter users convinced the service to delay their scheduled downtime to ensure that citizens in Iran had a window to voice the events taking place in their country. It was a good move and brought on by users who suggested the extension using the hashtag “#nomaintenance” throughout the day on Monday.

The downside of the real-time functions of Twitter is accuracy and filters. Breaking stories, images and comments coming from cell phones are hardly reputable in many cases and you never know what’s going to show up next – even spammers are learning ways to infiltrate this popular audience. However, it does give us an avalanche of detail and the media is consumed with this efficient method of street level reporting and thankfully, the debate and conversations are helping a country make an important transition.

There’s no doubt these new tools are powerful channels for swaying popular thought too.

A colleague of mind reminds me that revolutionaries use whatever weapons they can to report atrocities in this global age. And yes, it wasn’t that long ago fax machines and satellite phones communicated around the world.

What makes this event different is the realty that we all have a front row seat to this raw coverage. Twitter is simple to use and available for free to anyone with a computer. With your account you have access to a tsunami of real time information as change comes to the desert in the Middle East and it’s reshaping how news arrives to the social conscious.

It’s hard to tell how this will play out over the next few days, but it’s certain we’ve never seen anything quite like this and social media tools are only going to become more powerful as we move forward giving everyone a platform to promote a cause in The Digital Age. For the people in Iran, we can only hope the phrase “people lead – governments follow” has a chance to come true in this part of the world.

Follow me on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/davidcate

Other related stories;

CNN’s Coverage of Iran Protests Criticized – NYTimes.com

Tear gas and Twitter: Iranians take their protests online – CNN.com

FriendFeed Blocked In Iran, The Service’s Most Active Region

Taking to the Streets — and Tweets — in Tehran | Danger Room | Wired.com

Activists Launch Hack Attacks on Tehran Regime | Danger Room | Wired.com

Iran election: state moves to end ‘Facebook revolution’ – Times Online

Twitter Reschedules Maintenance To Allow Iranian Protests To Continue

It’s been really busy the past few weeks as we begin to roll out several new websites we’ve been working on at GoTriCities. Our staff have completed some of their best work all year long this past week and we have received a lot of attention for the work.

Last week, we were proud to launch the new Kingsport Chamber of Commerce website which included lots of fan fare including an appearance on the Kingsport ChamberZone business television show with Bob Feagins and Laura Steel, a couple of presentations and a feature in the newspaper this past week with Chamber president Miles Burdine.

The new Chamber website is a exciting new improvement from their old site and features a ultra-intuitive distinction that makes it super easy to navigate. There are plenty of pages that promote their programs from Fun Fest to Keep Kingsport Beautiful and lots of events, promotions and videos throughout the website. The site features a complete directory of all Chamber members, a daily update for available jobs in the region and more.

Early traffic numbers show a two-fold increase in their traffic patterns so far and we’re excited about working with area businesses to promote their brands on the site in the coming months. We’re working with Accuforce to telemarket Kingsport businesses to extend new marketing opportunities on the site.

Speaking to an audience has gotten easier for me in the past several years. With 24 years of experience in sales, you get to the point where the butterflies subside, especially after you make a mountain of mistakes along the way.

There’s still a bit of anxiety though and these opportunities are always learning experiences because mastering the art of presentation is a key to business success and I had chance to speak a three gatherings recently.

We’re getting ready to launch the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce website this week. Prior to the launch, I spoke to their Board of Directors for a sneak preview at their offices in Kingsport on May 20th. A group of 50 or so people were in the room that day and I had 10 minutes to deliver the quick tour.

On Thursday, May 16th, I was invited to speak to the Tri-Cities Metro Advertising Federation in Johnson City on the subject of Social Media. Mary Ellen Miller was also speaking that day and we had a chance to present several new ideas to the area’s advertising and marketing professionals.

This was a small group, but it was a significant gathering of peers at the Bank of Tennessee Financial offices in Johnson City. This swanky conference room overlooks State of Franklin road and the board room there has some of the coolest presentation tech that I’ve seen lately.

With windows all around, I lowered the screens in the circular office and presented a 15 minute presentation before about 35 agency reps, banks, hospitals, public relations professionals and small businesses.

My presentation was a collection of social media tools from our newspaper network, a review of the tools reshaping the media landscape and review of some of the ideas our clients are implementing using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other tools.

My main theme was the fact that social media isn’t all that new, citing our human desire for interaction and authenticity in conversations, but the the tools have certainly changed and we reviewed those ideas together.

Some of the interesting points of conversations from the session included how to effectively separate personal and professional identities using social media and how to ensure productivity in the workplace with these tools proliferating our lives.

Mary Ellen Miller did a great job introducing a lively collection of social media public relations examples and has been very successful re-branding herself after experience in television news, magazines and leading a PR firm at a local tech company. Her discussions on Social Media will continue on WJHL over the next several weeks.

Special thanks to Sarah Clevinger with The Bank of Tennessee and Jessica Bland with The Corporate Image for organizing this event. It helped me to sharpen my Keynote skills and I enjoyed sharing the new ideas about Social Media.

I’ll continue that discussion with clients over the next several weeks including a presentation to the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce tomorrow – June 1.

My last presentation was caught on video and that gives me a chance to critique the work.

The Kingsport Chamber of Commerce sponsors a Fourth Friday Breakfast every month at MeadowView Resort and Convention Center and they had me on the agenda for their session on May 22nd.

This morning meeting is open to all Chamber members to discuss business and encourage networking opportunities (plus a free breakfast) and it was up to me to open up the new Chamber website and give another peek before an audience of 250 local business people.

We had a good session and although I felt like my presentation was 20 minutes, it turned out to be only 9 minutes and that’s good. Most resources say people have at most a 30 to 60 second attention span and considering the early meeting time it would be very easy to fall asleep.

I had a good time speaking to all of these groups and look forward to other opportunities in the future.

Here’s the video from the Chamber of Commerce presentation.

Kingsport Chamber of Commerce Web Presentation from David Cate on Vimeo.

It was another busy week at work and we launched a new website for the Tennessee Constables Association.

This is an excellent design from our group and features several aspects of the constables in our state. Constables perform many legal services including, Evictions, Home Security Checks, Subpeonas, Deliver of Legal Documents, Summons, Security Escorts and much more.

The new website’s key function is the useful search where visitors can find their constable by zip code by the online database. The site also explains the services provided by these government workers and publishes handy links to other programs supported by their group.

Earlier in the week, we wrapped up a detailed user seminar for them to update every aspect of the website and we look forward to providing them greater services in the future.

Click here to visit The Tennessee Constables Association @ http://www.tnconstables.com

We end the month at GoTriCities with a slew of great websites ready to come out of the hangar. Our guys have been working on several projects this year and we’re finally ready to launch some wonderful new destinations and we’re proud to show them off.

Last week, we were excited to reveal a new non-profit organization that helps the homeless in our community.

Hope Haven Ministries, Inc. is a Christian, interdenominational, non-profit ministry that reaches out to homeless men, women and children who may be impoverished economically, educationally, emotionally and/or spiritually. We offer emergency shelter – safe, clean, temporary housing for those in distress. You have the opportunity here for a new start on life and a place to experience God’s love. Hope Haven is a step along the path of recovery, not a destination.’

The new website has a great new design that replaces their old one and includes an intuitive donation path that allows visitors and volunteers to commit resources and time to this important cause for our city.

Their slogan says it all ‘helping the homeless help themselves’ and so far they have helped hundreds of people in our city and we look forward to locking arms and helping them with their mission even more. Our guys did a great job with the site which features a custom content-management software which enables their staff to create regular updates and more.

Visit their new website at http://www.hopehavenkpt.org and find out more about Hope Haven Ministries in Kingsport.

The Kingsport Times-News was awarded with several distinct honors at the 2009 Tennessee Associated Press Managing Editors Awards held in Nashville this past weekend.

Recognized along with other newspapers by The Associated Press in the state of Tennessee, the Times-News received ten awards in their TAPME Division II class including Best Website, Best Photograph, Best Editorial and awards from other categories recognizing journalism excellence in business reporting and video production.

Congratulations to entire staff for this effort. It’s a good feeling to work with passionate professionals who seek to do their very best in a most unusual time for media.

It’s especially gratifying to receive the best website award in the state for our class too.

The Kingsport Times-News beat out The Jackson Sun and Leaf Chronicle – both newspapers owned by media giant Gannett. These newspapers like many of the other large papers in the state employ online strategies that utilize corporate software templates. I’m sure their staff was recognized by their content more than their structure because they all have the same style and layout and a good one at that.

In contrast, our two-man home-grown programming and design team held their own this year and it’s quite an honor. Kind of makes all those nights and weekends pay off – a little.

Beyond the tools and the visuals, our newspaper website owes a lot of its magnetism to New Media Editor Don Fenley who has a fierce journalist appetite for breaking news and he knows how to spin a headline.

In addition to the website recognition, our photographers swept the Photographer Awards for first, second and third.

Everyone at the Times-News recognizes the extraordinary talent of newcomer photographer Erica Yoon and she took first place in the state with Chief Photo Editor David Grace right behind her with a second and third. Erica and Ned Jilton also placed second and third in Feature and Sports Photography categories.

Stan Whitlock took first place honors for Best Editorial in the state and Sharon Caskey Hayes placed second in Business News journalism.

In addition to the traditional awards, Rain Smith was awarded with a Video Journalism award for a video he produced about a Rogersville man who built an electric car.

This was a great effort by the entire staff and although we appreciate the recognition, we still have plenty of work to do. The awards are well-deserved, but our desire to push the limits even further are rarely satisfied by any contest.

Thank you Associated Press and congratulations to everyone on our staff who helped to earn this extraordinary recognition by our peers.

For a complete list of 2009 TAPME Awards across the state of Tennessee, click here.

The title is a bit campy, but the content is rich. When I first picked this up at the bookstore, a couple of 20somethings pointed a the title and giggled a bit.

That’s probably the first impression of most, but don’t be mislead, Jeff Jarvis has written a timely book for the new economy. Within its pages (yes – he did publish a printed work) you’ll find a candid and bold statement about disruptive media trends and a prophecy for everyone from advertising agencies, real estate companies, newspapers and others.

Jarvis is an refreshing, informed author, academic journalist who’s paid his dues in print and although he’s probably tough pill for most newspaper execs, he’s the right medicine for the times.

In “What Would Google Do,” Jarvis takes aim at many traditional business sectors and re-imagines their future under the terms that Google is founded upon. Transparency, usability, speed and audience are examined in a powerful book that is a must-read for anyone focused on a career in the media of the future.

Have you seen the new White House website?

Barrack Obama became the 44th president of the United States at noon on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 and there was more than a peaceful transition of power that day. There’s a new website online for the White House.

This may be another first too because I don’t recall a new website with any inauguration.

It wasn’t that long ago that I browsed the stodgy museum/brochure website of the Bush Administration and the new one is yet another “change” that ushers in a new era and it’s even more exciting – especially with regard to the Net.