Real-Time Publishing and Search
Real-time… it’s becoming quite an important element. Webtrends has released real-time search combined with alerts. PubSubhubbub is emerging for blogs to push their feeds rather than have them retrieved. Search reaction time is shrinking… people are expecting answers to questions that have only been asked a few minutes ago.
For publishers, the challenge is to react when news happens and capitalize on it immediately. If you’re in the mobile industry and new happens, you need to publish as quickly as possible. It’s not just popularity that is driving traffic, it’s also your ability to react.
A few days ago, I published a WordPress Plugin for ChaCha. The plugin is a combination of testing certain elements of ChaCha’s vast network of questions – now available through an API, topical feeds, and custom feeds. The plugin has a few sidebar widgets – one that actually allows for real-time asking of questions and getting an answer back…. pretty cool.
For blog owners, I also included a ChaCha Trends dashboard that provides bloggers with an overview of trending data on ChaCha, Twitter and Google! By observing trending information, you can capitalize on traffic of topics that people are asking about, searching for, or discussing.
Please let me know what you think! Just go to your plugin directory, Add New, and search for ChaCha. Click install and it will install the plugin. To use the sidebar widgets, register for a developer login from ChaCha and you’ll be up and running in no time! If you simply want to run the dashboard, just write anything in the API Key field.
There’s quite a bit of noise from pop culture across all the sources, but you’ll find a gem every once in a while to capitalize on. Utilizing real-time terms in your content and publishing the content quickly can provide your blog with quite a bit of unexpected traffic!
Disclosure: ChaCha is a client.