Google switches off Realtime service to integrate +

By gbrzone, 4 July, 2011, No Comment

Google has turned off its realtime search feature in order to update it to work with its fledgling Google+ social network.

The launch of Google+ represents the latest attempt from the search giant to take on the likes of Twitter and Facebook, and its integration into other key services from Google is key to any success.

Inevitably, given its real time nature, Google is keen to integrate real time results from Google+ public messages into its real time search.

And, to that end, Google has suspended google.com/realtime whilst it completes the work.

Temporary

“We’ve temporarily disabled google.com/realtime. We’re exploring how to incorporate Google+ into this functionality, so stay tuned,” read a tweet on the official Google Realtime account.

Of course, that outage is going to ruffle a few feathers, but in truth downtime for maintenance is a fact of internet life, and probably serves to reinforce Google’s intent to make + work.

Amusingly, the last official tweet before the suspension was a suggestion that people follow the Google+ story on realtime.