Google's Realtime Search Adds Quora, Gowalla and Other Sources

Google's Realtime Search makes it easy to surface tweets, posts, updates and so on, as they happen. Realtime data from a number of sites shows up in the search results for the queries Google deems it to be relevant.

Realtime Search has relied on several sites and services for data, though Twitter was the most bountiful, and it has now expanded support for several new sites.

Google hasn't made any formal announcement, but people have been noticing the new sources and which showed up on a Quora thread, fittingly since the questions and answers site is one of the new additions.

"Earlier today, Google seems to have slipped Quora into Google Realtime Search, along with Gowalla, Plixi, Me2day, Twitgoo, and possibly others," the Quora thread read.

Google Realtime Search was introduced to bring in the freshest data from places where a lot of info is being created that is relevant to current events. Twitter is the most obvious such site, but there are plenty others.

Quora is a questions and answers site, hardly revolutionary in itself, but it has managed to build itself a reputation as a place for quality discussions, at least in the Silicon Valley.

Google Realtime Search is now tracking most activity on the site, questions and answers, but also comments on any of them. Data from Gowalla is now being indexed as well.

Public Facebook data along with Buzz content has been added along the way, though it hasn't been available from the get go.

The realtime search feature was introduced last year and has been integrated with the regular search but also has a dedicated section. If you don't see results from Twitter in the main page, you can click on the Updates link in the left-side menu to get only the most recent data. You can also visit Google.com/realtime to access the feature.