Wordpress Carries the Blog Torch Into Real-Time Search

Yesterday Wordpress announced their enabling of the RSS Cloud specification on all post feeds (and forthcoming on comment feeds).

Today we turned on support for all 7.5 million blogs on WordPress.com something called RSS Cloud, which is basically a way for people to get push notification that your feed has updated.

Why is this important? Right now how most people interact with feeds is by checking that it updated every now and then, usually about once an hour. Can you imagine waiting an hour to get your emails? (The world would probably be more productive.) RSS Cloud is an extra element in your RSS feed that allows subscribers to say “Hey, let me know as soon as you’ve updated, kthx.”

In the near term, this isn’t likely to change the daily routine of many of us, but in the future this is certain to have a profound effect on the battle over real-time search in social media.

With Facebook buying FriendFeed, and endless rumors and rationale for Google eventually buying Twitter, it’s clear that real-time search of conversations has become a leading priority across the social web. So far, the blogosphere has yet to jump in the mix except perhaps by proxy, in the way of links to blog posts on Twitter, Facebook, etc.  Wordpress moves full speed ahead into the ring.  With the move comes an understanding for all of us that in not too long, it will all be real-time. 

Conversations will take place and be immediately searchable.  News will travel faster.  Listening closely and consistently will become even more important for news organizations, brands concerned with reputation management, and individuals alike.  It’s just the beginning.