Earlier Google used a realtime search feature, where if you Google something, it would show the updated search results along with the search results from its database. That was more prominent in case of breaking news. So the realtime results were in sync with the updated news from around the world. It was actually helping people to get the updated news just by Googling it, rather than going to a news site or a live update of a news channel. So the search engine fulfilled its purpose of being one-stop shop for any query that you have, even if it is the breaking news.

But yesterday people were in rude shock when the news about Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi’s capture broke. Everybody was curious to get the update but what Google was displaying were the results which were approx 30 minutes old. So, people had to turn to the news channels, despite the fact that frequent Tweets were coming from Libyan city of Tripoli. So, the event proved that Google does not have the ability to show the results of “what is happing now?” whereas Twitter has this feature, which is a sign that Google still has a long way to go to become a complete search engine.