Real business is driven by real people. And, with eMarketer projecting that Twitter will see over 18 million registered users this year that is a confirmation of lots of real people ready to do lots of real business.

“Conversationalists”, are consumers who update their Facebook status or Tweets at least once a week. Conversationalists represent one third of all U.S. Internet users. According to Forresters’ Online Report, more than half of all conversationalists are women who have household incomes that are “slightly above average“. These social conversationalists have disposable incomes and for marketers this translates into real sales opportunities.

Companies like Starbucks, H & R Block, Best Buy and even Ford have discovered the value of real-time Twittering. They know that Twitter isn’t some me-generation-listen-to-what-I-have-to-say application, but rather an opportunity for big brands to “listen”. Listening to what consumers are saying about them, about their competition, and about everything that matters to them is important not only in building new customer relationships but in strengthening existing ones. People who Twitter are real individuals whose opinion is important.

Many companies and big brands are putting the faces of their employees behind their Twitter accounts. Real people talking in real-time not only is empowering but brings tangible business results. When you think about it who doesn’t prefer Tweeting with a face rather than a company logo?

Dell Computers is doing a great job at driving sales through Twitter. They have various Twitter accounts such as @Direct2Dell for breaking news on products and @DellTechCenter for 24/7 updates on technology. Their @DellOutlet for Twitter-specific promotions is currently listed as having a whopping 1,578,918 followers! These are people who have chosen to receive all of Dell’s Tweets.

Another good indication of the power behind real-time information is Google’s decision to incorporate Twitter feeds into their natural search results. This provides searchers with freshness and relevant material that is happening ‘right now’.

Is the 140-character limit a hindrance for businesses wanting to share and connect with potential consumers? Hardly. According to PEW Internet and American Life Project, Twitter users are more likely to consume news and information on their mobile phones than anywhere else. With that said, Tweets fit in perfectly with the fast pace that mobile-users appreciate.  Tweeters want the news, they want the updates, they want to keep in touch and they want to do it with the same rapid-fire speed as their on-the-go mobile lifestyles.

Living in the moment has never been so prevalent as it is right. Social Conversational Marketing provides a  real-time opportunity to build business on-the-go.

Our world is being hyper-linked at a rapid speed. Soon there will not be an object in the world we can not photograph from our cell phone and bring up information on. Google’s new Android mobile application “Goggles” promises to bridge the gap between our physical and virtual web worlds. “Goggles” is an image recognition technology that is more sophisticated than the augmented reality apps like Wikitude which allows you to point a cell camera at a landmark and pull information from maps. While “Goggles” does use maps to gather information it takes the visual search a step further by analyzing the image next to the vast “cloud” data of information. At this time the technology is still experimental performing best with images that are easily identifiable. But, it isn’t hard to see the future commercial application for this technology.

There are many lives being touched by interesting mobile application developments. Yesterday I was reading about some professors from Carnegie Mellon University and their mobile project aimed to help rural children in India understand English. Led by Professor Mathew Kam the “Mobile and Immersive Learning for Literacy in Emerging Economies” (MILLEE) is developing a series of mobile games modeled around games the rural children find familiar in order to teach them English. “Goggles” photo search could provide an interesting enhancement to this education project.

How long will it take for Google to index the world’s objects and leverage all those street view images? With all those consumers out there walking around with those killer apps in their pockets – their cell phone equipped with GPS and camera – it may be sooner than you think.

Actually we are not far off from the development of tiny implants or devices to add to our glasses that would enable our own eyes to connect and retrieve the vast data available on a viewed object. I am talking about new designer glasses equipped with tiny cameras capable of connecting to the “cloud”

Planning a vacation getaway, to purchase a new cell phone, or wondering what the hottest Christmas gift is for an eight year old? Why not turn to your social network – your contacts on Gmail, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Friendfeed for advice? According to socialnomics.com 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations and only 14%  trust advertisements.

We have all plugged in search queries into Google and other search engines and been frustrated by the results. Social Search, which is any search aided by a social interaction or a social connection, has not translated well to the internet medium. It is because search is a private activity and people are not comfortable letting everyone in their social network know what they searched for. Remember the Facebook “Beacon” fiasco?

Early social search pioneers like Eurekster, founded in 2004, have experimented with many approaches as well, prior to the development of their technology. “Swicki” enables a user to build and customize a vertical community around a particular topic. With the collaboration between groups of people searchers can obtain quicker and more relevant results than a generic search engine.

Google recently launched Social Search a product that allows users to search relevant public content from within their social circle indexed by Google from social sites. This means your search query may now include opinions, and other information related to the search term from within your social network. You need to be set up with a Google profile but from there it is quite simple to get your own Personalized Search Results.

Let’s say you are interested in going to Hawaii but don’t know which island to go to or where to stay. In the old days a travel agent would provide you the options. Today a search on the internet is the norm. But plugging in Hawaii on Google or Bing to obtain a list of places, reviews and histories, does not satisfy your query. This is because you are really searching for advice. Your search can only be sufficed through a Social Search.

Google Social Search acts as a type of conduit and taps into your network, grabbing public information from contacts who have travelled and written about Hawaii which is then displayed as part of your search results.

There is no question social search is taking us in some exciting directions. Companies like Google and Microsoft along with a whole host of smaller innovators like Eurekster and Spoke are constantly making changes to fine tune search relevancy. Our social connections will very likely influence our search results. However, there is a balance to be found between algorithmic and human search. Opt-In will be very important.

Social Search is being called the next revolution in search. It will be fascinating to watch this race play out. The fine line between privacy and performance will continue to be tested.

Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape, a pioneering company in the browser market in 1994, has reentered the internet search market with his announcement to back a new startup, Rockmelt, aimed at building a new internet browser.

Rockmelt was cofounded by Tim Howes a former employee of Netscape, along with Eric Vishria. When asked what was going to be different about this new browser Andreessen was tight lipped, afterall he has learned by experience the competitive tactics of his foes.

The web has become central to all our lives and our browser (or entry point) for all our interactions is increasingly becoming an important choice for consumers. The search giants like Google, Apple and Microsoft know how important this space is to their success in the search space.Microsoft lost its dominant position by not upgrading Internet Explorer allowing new entrants like Mozilla into the market.

Mozilla’s innovative Firefox browser, touted as an open-source success, has managed to grab 24% of the browser market since its launch in 2004. That is 300 million people around the globe entering web search through its portal. Firefox’s success is due largely to its focus on security and speed of delivery. Their success drove Microsoft and Apple to upgrade Safari, and Google to introduce its Chrome browser – a lightening speed browser designed to run complex web applications.

But the real browser battle will be fought in the mobile space where wifi and search will collide in a race to deliver multi-application friendly browsers. Mobile browsing is still a painful experience at this point though Opera is getting good reviews.

There is lots of opportunity for innovation and browser competition is good to ensure an open market and that neither of the giants can tilt the market to allow the favoring of their products and applications. Afterall the search giant coffers are filled when their applications like Gmail, maps and search services are more readily used and this is tied to browser experience that is foremost fast, easy, standardized, and secure in a multi-platform setting.

Could the man who successfully launched the first browser on the internet that garnered over 90% of search traffic lead the top spot again? Time will tell.

After starting with ‘MSN Search’ and then moving to ‘Live Search’, Microsoft made yet another attempt to beat Google in the search engine war with the launch of Bing – the “decision engine” in May 2009. However, based on industry reviews Bing is not a show-stopping disruptive technology, and in fact, has only some new features and a new name; hardly enough to capture a sizeable market share from the formidable search giant, Google.

Despite the luke warm response to Microsoft’s rechristened search engine Bing, it has managed to increase its total search market share both in terms of search penetration (May: 13.7% to 16.7% in June) and share of search result pages (May: 9.1% to 12.1% in June) according to Comscore. The search sector is a huge market so this increase is very significant. Rumor has it that Microsoft spent over 80 million dollars in marketing to promote Bing.

 Since the launch of Bing there have been some other very interesting developments in search. In fact, the buzz in the search industry was just settling when the possible alliance between Microsoft and Yahoo, long considered dead, resurfaced. Microsoft and Yahoo, two of the most potent challengers to Google’s search dominance, this month officially agreed on a 10 year search deal. There are two important aspects of the deal which are worth noting as they could change the search arena in days to come.

1.Microsoft will acquire an exclusive license to Yahoo’s core search technologies and is hoping to use it to better Bing. This could effectively mean better and more relevant search results, the prime reason behind Google’s success.

2. Microsoft’s Bing search algorithm will power both organic and paid search platform on Yahoo and Bing itself.

The partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo has inescapably altered the search industry landscape. This deal also means that Google’s attempt to get Yahoo paid search has come to a full stop; at least for the near future.

The Microsoft-Yahoo search deal will have major repercussions for the search industry because Yahoo and Bing carry a lot of weight and together they will be powered by Bing. Search marketers and advertisers will have to align their strategies and offerings to keep themselves ahead in the game. Some of the important points to be considered would be:

1. Search engine optimization for Bing is worth the time and money because even if you go by conservative estimates, together they command 28% of the market share (Comscore)

2. Leaving Bing out of your paid search campaign (PPC) is not a sensible choice.

3. Getting listed on Yahoo and Bing local will gain importance.

4. Paying more attention to Bing’s webmaster tools has become a necessity as there is a risk Yahoo site explorer will be left by the way-side.

While Google still continues to dominate the search landscape with over 70% of all search traffic, it is now clear that ignoring Bing in one’s overall online strategy could be a fatal mistake.