Real-time search and beyond: the next frontier for news & journalism

Yesterday's earthquake in silicon valley hi-lighted the emergence of real-time search in this rapid changing world. Both Twitter and Google provide some sort of real-time search. But their coverage so far are limited to the Internet only.

In future, if we can come up with an information retrieval mechanism that is connected to sensors, recorders, and other devices of mankind, then it would be possible to uncover activity that is happening real-time. It may be able to replace news coverage or journalism, because the role of news reporters is to report and document recent or on-going events, which can be replaced or supplemented by the automated search mechanism if designed correctly. This would really bring the power of media to the people (or the search engine).