Real Time Searches vs Static Searches

There are searches launched every day for a host of different reasons. Depending on what they’re searching for, individuals can and do launch searches to get information from a wide range of topics including business and personal subjects.

It’s not an easy guess when determining what subject people will search for because of the vastness of the web, but also because of the varying interests that people have. However, it can be somewhat easier to determine and coordinate the information that’s searched for by organizing them into types or categories that will make it easier for searches and easier to locate.

Knowing the Difference

For instance, there are real time searches that are quite popular in many categories, and there are also static searches that serve a different purpose and intent for other users. Real time searches are those that you will normally find within news sources, community feeds or groups or within channels that give you up to date information on different topics or subjects. Popular places for real time searches would be on places like Twitter, as a social sharing application, but also in places like online news sources or even academic sources online. These types of searches provide the reader with current, dated information that may be occurring at the moment. The information is reported as “real time” because it is what is really happening at that point in time.

When launching real time searches, the search engines crawl and scour all available and current data on that subject and return to you any results that it finds. Because of the nature of this type of search, it’s not a suggested method to use for topics that require intense research or any topic where more detailed information is needed about a subject. It can be looked at as a topical search type of information portal in some cases. This is also what makes these types of searches popular within social platforms and blogging websites.

Getting the Details

For those individuals who want more comprehensive search information and results that are more detailed, the static searches may be what fit their needs. Static searches tend to work more with archived data or data that’s in more of a recorded form. Libraries are search databases will likely contain more static search information and will give more detailed information in the searches.

When you look at searches that concentrate more on static information, you’ll get things that may run a gamut of areas. Some samples like this may include:

– where something may have originated or details about its beginnings

– the different types or styles of an item, including manufacturer information

– a list of company officer’s names and details about them

– addresses or location information about persons, places or things

Static information will deal with things that are already established and may or may not have built a history around that topic. This is also why archived data is so conducive to this type of search.

As for knowing which type of search to launch for any particular need, it’s best to first identify the goal of the sought after information before determining the best approach to find the information.

Also, when launching either type of search whether it’s static or real time, it’s best to have as much descriptive and accurate information as possible before starting the search. This saves both time and frustration for the user and keeps him from looking at bad information or wasting time by pursuing incorrect data. This may include things like having the correct spelling of a person’s name, or having the correct address or birth year. For large scaled searches, it’s also a good idea to have as much information as possible because large databases will be accessing the information, so by fine tuning the search ahead of time, the searcher can eliminate any potential time-wasters.