The great thing about the real time web is the openness of the medium. You can learn about what is happening right now without actually participating in the real time web.
Many sites and tools have launched making it easy for users to become informed. Several search engines have cropped up on the real time web to allow users to explore what is being said.
Sency has launched and it allows you to see what is going on via its two tabbed format. The initial tab shows you what people are saying about what you searched for. The popular links tab will show you today’s hottest links for the keyword you searched for.
Tweet Meme will show you the current hottest stories on the web, and it also shows you how many times a given story has been shared on the real time web.
In addition to searching, you can use the real time web to see hot trends right now. If you visit Twitter’s homepage, you will see trends below the search box. The first line shows you what is hot right now. The second line shows you what is today. And, the third line shows you popular topics this week. These trends are interesting to follow – as they often can show you breaking news before it gets picked up by the major media outlets.
So, these real time web tools are free for anyone to use, and over time, they will allow you to stay in touch with what is happening right now.