Google Realtime is one of their Search products that you can find in their left-hand menu column.
I use this tool as an up-to-the-second report of any particular subject, topic, or news feature. Realtime uses Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, MySpace, etc social media posts from everywhere around the world. "How are these social networks going to provide for me anything worth looking at that would be considered news-worthy or for my own serious research", you may be asking. With this application, I can get instant updates and news not only from news publications, but even from people associated with the news event or person. If I am keeping up to date with any major event for my students, this is a great tool to help me with that. I can then keep my students informed. Each post also provides links to other articles and publications that can provide more useful information and may introduce you to a new favorite news source. Realtime is live and auto-refreshes, so you will receive any new update as soon as it happens. It even tells you how long ago the post was updated; in days, hours, minutes, and seconds. You may want to refresh your browser periodically if Realtime is kept open for an extended period of time, just to ensure that your live feed is continuous.
You may find that some of the posts become a bit redundant (as anything in society), however you do find some gold nuggets of material. You can, also, view the Timeline on the right of the Google Realtime page where it will indicate peaks of activity by time. Click anywhere on the Timeline to go back in time to view past updates where update activity peaks.
The video explains more of Realtime's features and how to customize your Realtime search.
Another great procduct from Google than can save headaches and time.
Do you like to follow Blogs or any news-related web site like CNN or The New York Times? Do you utilize RSS? Then Google Reader is right up your ally.
In a nutshell Google Reader collects all of those feeds, news, and updates and organizes (aggregates) them in one location that you can easily manage. I follow almost 100 blogs, news sites and RSS feeds for information of various kinds. Instead of bookmarking all of these sites and scrolling and flipping through web pages to find material, I can view and save snippets that lead me to the main articles. I can sort and manage all of these updates and read the ones that I find pertinent for me. You can also share your favorites with others.
Another great feature is that I can tie in my Google Alerts. When I apply for a Google Alert, I have them sent to my Reader, so that I can view and manage them in one place.
For more information on Google Alerts view my post.
Google Alerts is a great tool to stay in the loop on any current event faster than the morning paper or TV news. It's a great tool professionally and personally. Great for Social Studies teachers.
I have been collecting Alerts on Wikileaks, Ai Weiwei (Chinese government detained Artist), and the Government Shutdown. I have put my Alert settings to send me any kind of news the moment it comes out. You can, also, set it to send you a daily or weekly digest and you can just set your Alerts for News, Blogs, Realtime, Video or Discussions only.
Google Alerts also can be tracked in your Google Reader, making your news or information flow more directed and in one place. Google Reader will update for you automatically. I can now keep my Reader open and toggle back to it to view any new updates. For more information on how Google Reader makes your news/info/rss/blogs much easier to collect and saves headaches, go to my Google Reader post.
I use this tool as an up-to-the-second report of any particular subject, topic, or news feature. Realtime uses Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, MySpace, etc social media posts from everywhere around the world. "How are these social networks going to provide for me anything worth looking at that would be considered news-worthy or for my own serious research", you may be asking. With this application, I can get instant updates and news not only from news publications, but even from people associated with the news event or person. If I am keeping up to date with any major event for my students, this is a great tool to help me with that. I can then keep my students informed. Each post also provides links to other articles and publications that can provide more useful information and may introduce you to a new favorite news source. Realtime is live and auto-refreshes, so you will receive any new update as soon as it happens. It even tells you how long ago the post was updated; in days, hours, minutes, and seconds. You may want to refresh your browser periodically if Realtime is kept open for an extended period of time, just to ensure that your live feed is continuous.
