You may have noticed something new the last time you googled. Perhaps you were looking for a review of this weekend’s blockbuster, the score of yesterday’s playoff game or  when that new restaurant down the street starts serving dinner, and there it was … a real-time search result.

In case you still don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a screen shot:

Whether it’s breaking news, an eyewitness tweet, a new blog post or a fresh status update, real-time search is every search engine’s hope to make all of their results both relevant and instant. Partnering with the big names in social media -- Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, et al — Google, Bing and the rest of the search giants hope to bring an always-changing, always-popular, always-relevant aspect to their results pages. But what does that mean if you want your company or brand to be included in the results?

Social networks are more important than ever. If you’re not currently on social networks, you’re missing one of the best ways to have conversations with your customers. On top of that, now you’re also missing opportunities to connect with potential customers who look for you on popular search engines. The social networks presented in real-time search results have been given greater importance and staying power, and this should be reflected in your marketing plan.

SEO everywhere. People/companies who use social networking outlets should now become more concerned about their word choice. Having the right phrase in your last tweet or Facebook status could launch you directly onto the first page of Google. Not to mention, having posts about topics that aren’t directly related to your field will now help you reach an entirely new audience.

Stay relevant. Keeping current and relevant with your messages and messaging will be crucial. According to Google Fellow Amit Singhal, the characteristics that Google looks for in relevant real-time searches are author quality, probability of relevance and query hotness. Providing frequent, quality posts to all of your social networking outlets allows you to hit all three of these points.

Real-time search is just getting its sea legs, and users are just starting to understand what it is and how to use it. But if you position your company correctly and learn to use real-time search in your favor, you could be on the ground floor of the next boom in search.