Obviously not content with sitting on the sidelines while the world goes Apple crazy this week, Google have decided to announce an innovation of their own.

According to Google Caffeine will provide 50 percent fresher results from web searches than their last index, coupled with this it is also the biggest collection of web content ever offered by Google.

No matter what it is that the user is searching for from blog posts to news stories Google claim that it is much easier to find links to relevant content than it has been in the past.

Google decided to build this new search indexing system in order to help searchers find the latest and most relevant content and also as a way of ensuring that content published by publishers can be found almost instantly after the content has gone live.

The old Google index often had quite a substantial delay between when Google found a page and when they made it available for web users.

This was because the old index had several layers, some of them were refreshed at a faster rate than other but the main layer would only be updated every couple of weeks.

In order to refresh a layer of the old indexing system Google would have to analyse the entire web leading to this delay.

With the Caffeine update Google are able to analyse the web in smaller portions therefore allowing them to update the search index on a continuous basis, worldwide.

As new information and pages are found Google can now ass them straight to the index meaning that more up-to date info can be found no matter where or when it was published.

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I personally fall into the former category, though I’ll try and sum up both sides’ points fairly…

Pros

Okay, we’ll start with the useful stuff. When you’re looking for stuff that’s just happened, information being recent is by far the most important thing.

Let’s use Michael Jackson as an example. In the hours after the story of the singers death was broken on TMZ Google was flooded with queries pertaining to the singer. For these searchers, almost all of whom were trying verify then rumour, aside from any news results, the first page would have been pretty much useless as it would only be bringing up official sites, places to buy tickets for the O2 shows, etc. even the news results would have been out of date. A real time news ticker would have serviced those searchers needs exactly.

I know that’s an extreme example, but the principle stands up for all current affairs searches, and even for other types of searches. Basically it comes down to the fact that real-time search provides another perspective that could well be useful. Maybe even providing you with something you didn’t think of originally.

Cons

Right, now the case for the prosecution. Basically the point made by the naysayers is this, being the first or latest to comment on something does not make you right, nor does it make your opinion any more valid. In fact, often it’s quite the opposite, to grant these people what’s often effectively position one on Google, however briefly seem s a little bit counter-intuitive.

Also, it may be open to abuse. I’ve no doubt there’s unscrupulous black-hat types out there as I type figuring out ways to automate their twitter posts etc., to keep showing up. Google will undoubtedly have thought about this, though it’ll still be interesting to see how spammy it ends up getting.

The other criticism is that it increases Google’s dominion over the first page of results. This is a common gripe from SEO consultants, that it makes it tougher for them to get decent rankings if more and more spaces are taken up by Google Base, Google Images, Real Time Search, etc. This is valid in some respects though if the information Google provides is relevant then I really don’t see the harm. After all, the SERPS are always there if you don’t find what you need from Google’s offerings.

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It’s no beta launch either, according to Google the update is completely live and should be visible around the world in a couple of days.

You’ll see for yourself soon enough, but for now let me fill you in on how the new function works. The real time section works in the same way as the other search add-ons like product search or Google Base in that it takes up a section in the SERPs about two results wide, this then populates with results pertaining to the search query you’ve entered as they are put onto the internet.

It is undoubtedly very cool, especially when you consider that the tool is indexing over a billion separate sites (that’s right a billion) and bringing you the results second by second which can’t have been easy to build. Okay, Twitter did it first, but impressive as that was, they were only indexing the results from one site, theirs, what Google have achieved here is a much more complicated proposition.

Here’s what senior Googler, Amit Singal had to say had to say…

“There is so much information being generated out there that getting you relevant information is the key to the success of a product like this. It’s all about relevance, relevance, relevance.”

Well quite. So, what sort of stuff comes up? Well, there’s a lot of news sites and obviously Twitter, facebook et al. get a look in which is pretty useful, especially when you’re researching or looking for the latest results about something as you see actual information rather than just whichever webmaster has paid the most for their SEO management, which isn’t always the most relevant info. Also, and this is the clincher, it helps you get an at-a-glance look at the way public opinion, taking the temperature of the world on an issue instantly.

Stay tuned for more info and discussion on this – it’s caused quite a stir in the office.

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That’s right, Bing are apparently also trying to ape Twitter’s real time search function. However, they are going about it in a slightly different way to Google. Instead of trying to beat Twitter at their own game like Google, they appear to have decided to have taken a ‘can’t beat em, join em’ attitude towards real time search and signed a non-exclusive deal with Twitter to make tweets available immediately through the Bing search engine.

This could also be presented as aping another aspect of Caffeine, the increased importance of Social networking, an argument that is enhanced by the fact that Bing has also recently agreed a deal to show Facebook feeds as part of the Bing search results.

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This is why it pays to check what your caffeine rankings are going to be ahead of time. Luckily, Google has provided numerous tools to help us do just that…

1. Ranking Checker: This tool simply tells you your current Google ranking as opposed to your prospective Google Caffeine ranking

2. Google Caffeine Bookmarklet: A ‘bookmarklet’ that you can install straight into your browser to let you check your rankings with a click

3. Firefox Search bar Plug-In: As the name suggests, this is a plug in that allows you to view caffeine via a Firefox plug-in

4. Google vs Google Caffeine: A very cool toy that gives you a split screen view of Googleresults vs Google Caffeine results

5. Google.ie and Google.de vs Caffeine: Same as the above but for both Ireland and Germany

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As a result it’s very likely that we’ll see the position of this feature tweaked as part of the Caffeine update. It’s unlikely that Google will feel bullish enough to get rid of such a popular and useful application entirely, though I wouldn’t be even remotely surprised to see the section moved to the bottom of the results. This would be more of a relief for SEOs than an actual opportunity as it would basically mean that number one position would retain its cache, which has been slightly eroded by Google’s continual insistence on placing its own results, Google base etc., atop the search rankings.

Don’t get too excited though, Google are going to have to balance profitability with user experience here (as they usually do, to be fair to them) so where Universal Search actually ends up will be subject to change for a while.

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Google is hoping that Caffeine will put a stop to that. The search engine leader believes that it can index at a much faster speed than it currently is, even fast enough to, if not exactly beat Twitter at its own game, then certainly reflect web searchers’ hunger for real-time information and updates.

This is one of the great opportunities for savvy SEOs and marketeers I was talking about the other day. If everything goes to plan with Google’s new update and close-to-real-time indexing is possible, and that is a huge if, then it will make all kinds of exciting marketing and product placement opportunities possible.

Just off the top of my head, you could easily tie-in ecommerce deals with stories in the news to get them indexed further up the rankings, or write product placement style ‘news content’ to get your brand seen by more people. Definitely scope for some interesting stuff there.

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In practical terms the changes will mean that competition is going to go up for the generic keywords as more pages indexed clearly means more competition. There is also likely to be more fluctuation in positions for the big hitters as SEO changes are indexed quicker and improvements have more of an immediate effect. As I said yesterday, all this points to a renewed focus on use of SEO companies as ordinary webmasters are unlikely to be able to react in the best way, or quickly enough to keep up. Basically, sites that used to be able to muddle along without any real optimisation may not be able to do so any more.

Another thing to remember is that SEO strategy may begin to skew away from big aggressive campaigns targeting one or two generic terms, with competition hotting up for these big generic keywords, a good longtail keyword strategy is going to be more important than ever. It may be that instead of slugging it out for fifth position for that big hitting generic keyword, you’re better off focussing on being number one for several of its less glamorous cousins.

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The first thing is, don’t panic. Whilst Caffeine is a major update to the Google algorithm, it shouldn’t have too much of an immediate effect on your ranking, provided you’re behaving in an ethical manner, that is. The main thing to remember is that the stuff that has always worked best will most probably continue to work and use of SEO companies will continue to be a necessary part of your strategy. In fact, if anything, they will become more important than ever. The landscape is going to shift radically in terms of what Google can do and how fast it can do it, there will be plenty of loopholes for a capable SEO to exploit.

But more of that tomorrow. The main thing for the time being is, relax. There’s unlikely to be a horrific SEO downside to Caffeine though there may be some real pluses, for you. Again, we’ll go into some of this tomorrow. See you there.

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