A few days ago, Google launched its real-time search feature. This means Google will now be able to display search results of web content that has just been published. Think of it as like adding a Twitter search form that spits out what people are talking about at this very moment. Traditionally, Google displays search results only after a page has been crawled and indexed. With the popular presence of social media tools, it is hard to ignore featuring real-time search. This feature is clearly screaming to be added when Twitter added this feature into its homepage.

So that explains the existence of Google's real-time search capability.

Real-time search enables us to discover late breaking news the moment they happen. That's even before editors get hold of the news for fact checking and publishing. When you use Google to search for something, you may find results from Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and a few other partners on search results. But it should be understood that not all terms will yield results of these search partners, as Google only focuses on "hot topics".

Certainly sounds good but what benefits and risks do we expect from this latest Google feature?

1. It provides a new avenue for individuals and groups to monitor brand reputation. If you manage a McDonald's outlet in Causeway Bay and someone tweets he received one less chicken nuggets from your shop and you find this tweet on top of Google search result?

2. It offers more prominence and opportunities for links mentioned on real-time search results that appear on top of search results. That's because they push links of other (read: traditional) web search results down the page.

3. It offers a dangerous precedent for brands and individuals who may be used (or misused) and destroy the reputation through derogatory messages that appear immediately on search results.

4. It puts parents in a risky situation. If your child is using Google to look for Taylor Swift information, a predator in the guise of a Taylor Swift CD promoter could use the term within a real-time search result and invite children to call them for their free Taylor Swift CD "no questions asked".

As business owners, you may ask why do we need to realign ourselves towards this new development? A study from Society for New Communications Research says:

* 59% of consumers use social media to vent their frustrations about customer service experience, and research other companies’ customer service before dealing with them

* 74% choose companies/brands based on others’ customer-care experiences shared online

* 72% research companies’ customer care online prior to purchasing products and services at least sometimes

* 84% consider the quality of customer care at least sometimes in their decision to do business with a company

* 81% say blogs, online rating systems and discussion forums can give consumers a greater voice regarding customer care, but less than 33% say they believe that businesses take customers’ opinions seriously

* Search engines are the most valuable online tools for this research. Those rated of no value include micro-blogging sites like Twitter (39%), YouTube (27%) and social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace (22%)

Certainly, when relevance meets real-time, there benefits and risks we all should expect from Google's real-time search.