Hugene - 11:17 pm on Oct 21, 2009 (gmt 0)

I don't get this at all, this is what the big-G says:

That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you'll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.

I am sorry, but this is complete garbage: I don't see how status updates can provide meaningful information over and above what commercial entities, like the ski resort web pages or weather web pages, can provide.

Basically both M$ and G are going down a blind alley: status updates are pure and absolute garbage, especially on Facebook (aka: "can't wait for the week end", "happy to be back", etc...). The only time this is not true for Twitter is during civil unrest or emergency situations, where tweets can be the first to break a story. However this is a rare situation and I doubt it will get in the SERPs quickly enough.

Second, this is a huge privacy concern: all of a sudden your number one activity (updating your useless status) becomes public and the target of random or not so random searches.

This is pretty crazy when you think about it.