SpectatorBytes

The emergence of Twitter as a major consumer application on the Web has put the spotlight on “real-time” information delivery. Facebook is quickly jumping on the bandwagon with their recently announced updates to its user experience. Real-time news and information delivery has been one of the great promises of the Web.

For many years, real-time content has been offered to audiences in specific verticals such as finance and sports, often with a paying customer base. For example, it was only until recently that real-time stock quotes were made available free of charge. These user segments, fantasy sports buffs or stock traders, had to have the latest information available. This was not the case for mainstream users.

So, what has changed? Consumers now have access to the Web on a 24 hour basis via their both their laptops and mobile devices. With increased access and mobility, people’s ability to consume and appetite for new information has expanded exponentially. There does not appear to be a limit on how many times a consumer can return to their news sources and sites for “fresh” information. Furthermore, many online publishers (bloggers) have contributed to the growth in consumer demand by introducing “real-time” initiatives such as “live” coverage of industry events, award shows, Twitter streams, etc. These trends have helped real-time gain mainstream momentum.

A few years back, we realized at AOL that real-time news and information would be key the differentiator and an engine of usage for the channels in the network. We had witnessed how blogs providing continuous updates were gaining audience versus traditional sites providing daily updates. We felt “real-time” would be the next incremental step. For this reason, in 2006, we purchased a news service for financial institutions called Relegence. Relegence surfaced information across the Web on events, topics, and people that were generating news. The idea was to keep consumers coming back to our site for the most comprehensive and timely news coverage. AOL has now integrated this capability into its core news channels. I have been told this feature has played an important role in growing usage.

I mention this because there were a couple of interesting things that we learned about how publishers can leverage “real-time” experiences to enhance their offering, create differentiation vs. search and drive usage:

Given Google’s dominance, the Web has been mainly a “pull” medium. Real-time services allow the creation of “push” consumer experiences. This means that consumers today tend to actively seek out information rather than to passively receive it. Real-time services can “push” information to users on topics that are being heavily written about or discussed by many people, whose relevancy results from their timeliness and popularity. Consumers can more rapidly become aware of topics gaining importance on the Web but about which they may have not searched. Waterfall is an application on Twitter that seeks to highlight this type of experience.

In addition, real-time services can help highlight topics for which the level of activity is above the norm. For example, Britney Spears is constantly being discussed or written about. This does not mean that she is always making news. Yet, when there is a spike in the number of articles and mentions, these services can surface the news that is actually new.

Lastly, as new topics emerge, these new topics will relate to existing topics. Publishers will benefit from having tools that enable them to establish these new links among topics, events, people and organizations. Moreover, publishers should leverage their library of historical content to complement the new real-time information. Online publishers, which increasingly make real-time information delivery and breaking news the core of their experience, will benefit greatly. Real-time could help publishers increase their leverage in the “starting point” battle. Publishers who treat “real-time” simply as a feature may risk falling behind. Having said that, real-time offerings apply to some categories more than others. However, I expect it to gain in importance as a driver of usage across the board.

The “real-time” trend will have significant implications in other media but I will leave that for another post. It could be that I am too obsessed with my Blackberry and iTouch. Do you have a different Point of View?