48ers.com Offers Realtime Social Search Across Networks

For the most part, realtime search engines, including OneRiot, Topsy and Twazzup, have focused on indexing the world of Twitter. That makes some sense, given the significant number of updates flowing through the microblogging network, but it covers only part of the worlds real-time sharing spectrum. A relatively new site, called 48ers, is looking to return results not just from Twitter, but also Facebook, Google Buzz, Digg and Delicious, and more interestingly, it lets you show results from each network on its own, should you choose. While Twitter may still win in terms of the total number of discovered results, they are intertwined with people who have chosen to post in other places.

Much like practically every search engine that has debuted after Google's spartan interface displayed the UI of the future, 48ers.com's home page is relatively light, showing only a search field, and in the age of Twitter, Trending topics. Click on a Trending Topic, such as "Hannah Montana Forever" and you see results that match the query.

A 48ers.com Search for VC Funds Shows Results from Buzz, Twitter

No big deal, right? True. But if you look at the top left of the search result page, you see you can now filter the search by any of five networks. Click on Facebook for the same query, and you will see shares on Facebook with the same match. Similarly, clicking on Google Buzz, Digg or Delicious will further segment the results by their source.

Searching 48ers for Oakland A's Updates from Buzz

Clicking on the results of any query takes you to the status update, if on Twitter or Facebook, the Digg submission, the Delicious bookmark, or the Google Buzz entry. (For example, this special Google Buzz entry on Hannah Montana)

Breaking News updates via 48ers from Facebook and Twitter

Like Twitter's vanilla search engine, 48ers offers useful searches, including "breaking news" and the more social ""totally recommend", which gets used surprisingly often.

Where 48ers comes up short is in continuing the realtime flow. Twitter's search engine, despite its failings, prompts to refresh as new entries are posted. FriendFeed's has them flow from the top. 48ers does not do that, so while the initial query may be made on realtime sources, the results themselves are static.

You can find 48ers on the Web at http://www.48ers.com or on Twitter at @48ersdotcom.