Real-time search is one of most talked about topics of late. As a result, real-time search engines are popping up all around. One of the most popular of those real-time search engines is Collecta.

As Collecta CEO Gerry Campbell tells WebProNews, their approach to real-time search is different from the other real-time engines. Collecta provides real-time streaming search results of not only social networks, but also from news publications and sites across the entire Web.

As content is published online, Collecta send it directly through to the users in approximately a split second. The engine is based on XMPP technology, which is the same protocol that Google Wave is based on. Collecta does run filters to detect for any spam and to apply relevance.

To better explain how Collecta is differentiated from other search engines, Campbell shares an analogy using bodies of water. Other search engines gather search results and put them into a pile to sort, which essentially creates an ocean of information. Collecta, on the other hand, is already watching everything that is happening online and as content is published, it builds a stream and flows the information to users.