A quote from a recent New York Times piece on the monetization of real-time search:

“Others say examples abound of queries that could be matched with ads: a search for tweets about snow conditions may be an advertising opportunity for ski resorts; one about poor cellphone coverage could attract ads from a rival network; one about restaurants could be matched with ads showing up-to-the-minute seating availability at the local deli.” – How High Will Real-Time Search Fly?

Some lights clicked for me when I read this passage and connected it with the Mint financial data service.

First off the idea of users searching in different ways and forming different queries when it comes to real-time search engines is really important to take into consideration if you want to think about monetizing in that space.

“Roofers in Toronto” is a typical Google-type query, but it’s not one that will ever be typed as such in Twitter nor will it ever trend. All those businesses buying Google Adwords won’t benefit as much from a real-time search engine.

So what are the sorts of queries users would make in a real-time search engine, that they aren’t already doing in normal search that would count as new searches. What are users expecting when they query, and what room is there for advertising?

The preceding quote has that answer, or at least a partial truth containing the answer. My money is on there being micro-information people are seeking out that it only makes sense to do on a real-time engine. For the second half of the equation, what ads can I show them? Let’s see if we can apply the model Mint uses. Offer few, specific alternatives that can provide more value to the user.

“Are the conditions bad at ski resort A?” – Yes they are bad, but here are the conditions of the next 4 closest resorts that (that are advertising with us)

“Is Telco A down for everybody?” – People in these areas are saying that Telco A is down, but here is a 2 month offer that Telco B is offering.

Answer users’ questions by providing useful information, and then offer alternatives to the user that gives them more value.