The real-time search engine field has exploded the last few months, but most contestants so far haven’t lived up to the hype (Scoopler, Topsy, Collecta, CrowdEye). Traffic tends to drop sharply after the early interest wanes. The exception to the rule appears to be OneRiot, which is certainly pulling ahead in the first leg of the real-time search competition
Naturally other startups are pushing hard to catch up, but with results for over one million search queries a day, OneRiot is clearly setting the pace. Although this number is barely a hiccup on the screen for any of the major search engines, investors recognize that OneRiot is heading down the right road. In the most recent round at the end of August, investors parted with another $7 million.
Last May, OneRiot added the ability to search links from Twitter, catching the media’s and consumers’ attention. They really pulled out ahead of the pack by launching their API. By giving other sites the ability to tap into OneRiot’s real-time search and package it with their own Web app or site, OneRiot saw their search volume skyrocket. With API partners like Microsoft, browser add-ons Yoono and Shareaholic, desktop apps Nambu and Eventbox and nearly 40 others, OneRiot sees around 80 percent of its searches coming from these APIs.
Marketing your real-time search to others is an excellent way of gaining market share. OneRiot will soon have competition in this area, as Collecta will shortly be offering its own APIs as well. The more real-time searches OneRiot (or any of its rivals) can process, the better its results will be, and the better its standing among the competition. Volume is the name of the game when it comes to search queries.
Although acquainting people with real-time search across the web is good, OneRiot eventually needs to direct searchers back to OneRiot.com, where they can direct the experience and collect the cash.
