If news organizations or journalists are still looking for a reason to devote resources to social media, Microsoft’s deal with Twitter shows how an investment in social media could return better search engine results.

Let’s take U2’s streamed concert at the Rose Bowl for an example. Using Bing’s twitter search to look for Rose Bowl brings up four recent tweets and a list of “Top links shared in Tweets about Rose Bowl.” I won’t go into the Bing search algorithm, its results, or the fact that they are very different from results for the same query on TweetMeme, Twazzup or OneRiot.

The point is that a major search engine is now using information from Twitter to rank its listings. Sure, its sectioned off on the site right now, but if that section proves to return good results, why wouldn’t Microsoft consider integrating “Twitter juice” (the value that Twitter gives to a site) into their main search results?

We all know that search engines drive traffic to “newspaper” sites and blogs. If those engines start integrating data from social networks into their main search results, it behooves every news organization and blogger to be active in social media if they hope to increase their rankings in search engines. Invest the time and get better search rankings in return.

Oh yeah, in case you missed it, Google is next.

Journalists have traditionally decided when a story ends, taking into consideration the amount of new information, open questions, public interest and a slew of other factors.

But when do stories powered by streams of information end? Each image below links to news about President Barack Obama and the Nobel Prize, as gathered by real-time search engines. These engines are the closest thing to my storystreaming concept.

The story last week was that Obama won the prize. Is that story done? Do the streams below advance the story or reveal new ones? Would it be a good idea to stop streams once a story is done? Would an archive of such streams be useful? Could those archives be edited to become another encyclopedic resource? Should people not expect real-time search to provide relevant information after a story is over?

Please help me answer these questions before I discuss the storystreaming concept with Daniel Honigman, Mark Krynsky and Mona Nomura on Wednesday at the 140 character conference.

Now, for the real-time search results about last week’s story:

OneRiot

Scoopler

Topsy

Twazzup

Journalists can use Twitter to as a live reporting tool, but what if you are writing a story from afar and are looking for quotes as provided by “citizen” journalists at an event?

Simply adding a widget that pulls in tweets about the event will likely just add confusion and repetition. For example, author Chris Brogan spoke at Blog World Expo yesterday. Take a look at the Twitter search results for “@chrisbrogan #bwe09″.

What about focusing on just one part of the event? You’ll still get similar results. Let’s focus on something that Brogan (reportedly) said about the Farmville Facebook game.

Click on the image at the right to see the many retweets and Twitter reaction to Brogan’s Farmville comment. Adding that into a blog post or article would do little to clarify or advance a story.

What if a system could automatically eliminate retweets and just list the few messages from the people who originally quoted Brogan? Here is a my handmade version of that list:

1. 
   sradick @chrisbrogan has one bit of advice for you – “get out of Farmville, you dumbass” #bwe09 16 Oct 2009 from m.slandr.net
2. 
   daynah lol, @chrisbrogan just told us to uninstall Farmville. :) #bwe09 16 Oct 2009 from Twitterrific
3. 
   JayBerkowitz @ChrisBrogan Uninstall Farmville you stupid monkeys #BWE09 #fightcancer 16 Oct 2009 from TweetDeck
4. 
   suzannepeters @chrisbrogan: “uninstall farmville you dumb monkeys” lol #bwe09 16 Oct 2009 from UberTwitter
5. 
   krynsky “Uninstall Farmville you dumb monkeys” @chrisbrogan at #bwe09 16 Oct 2009 from SimplyTweet

— this quote was brought to you by quoteurl

There a some serious discrepancies that need to be addressed:

• Did Brogan tell people to stop playing Farmville, or to actually uninstall the Facebook app?
• Did Brogan call people dumbasses, stupid monkeys or dumb monkeys?

So how would you address those questions?

• Would you go through Craig Kanalley’s tweet verification process and share only what you determine to be the most accurate comment?
• Would you share the list of five original tweets and let readers decide which quote to believe?
• Would you link to the Twitter search results and give readers the chance to see all of the white noise, public reaction and spam for themselves?
• Would you omit Brogan’s comment from the story altogether?

Please leave your comments below. I’m trying to figure out how a storystreaming platform could help support that part of today’s reporting process.

As I continue to explore the details for a storystreaming platform, I need to figure out how tweets should be integrated into a story. The challenge, of course, is that there is no one right way. Just as a third person point of view works for some stories, but not all, tweets will need to be presented in a way that is conducive to the story being told.

Here are a few ways that I’ve seen people include tweets into blog posts and articles. Each image is linked to the original story, so please click on them to fully appreciate the way that each presentation works within the story.

How have you seen tweets integrated into articles and blog posts? Please add links to examples in the comments below.

Quotes in a paragraph

Indented block of text

Screenshot of small tweet

Screenshot of large tweet

Screenshot of multiple tweets

Multiple tweets with links preserved

A while back, I introduced the idea of a storystreaming platform, which is basically my dream system that would allow journalists to mix original reporting with social media and “user generated” content. It would also present those “mashups” as streams that tell a story, not as articles with widgets or boxes included as story “extras.”

I’ll be talking more about the storystreaming concept next week with Daniel Honigman, Mark Krynsky and Mona Nomura during the second day of the 140 character conference in Los Angeles, so I’m using this blog to share some possible topics of conversation.

To get a small idea of how large the scope of a storystreaming platform might be, let’s imagine that each social element of a storystream came from just one social media platform. Here is a list of elements, along with the just one platform that might be used to feed each element.

• Text (Twitter) and conversations à la QuoteURL
• Links (Delicious) and lists of links from networks or tags
• Pictures (Flickr) and galleries from groups, sets or tags
• Songs/audio (Last.fm) and playlists from tags, groups or libraries
• Videos (YouTube) and collections from channels, playlists or subscriptions

Of course, many social platforms are missing from this mix, and I haven’t even mentioned services like Twitpic that use the the Twitter platform to share non-textual content (pictures, video and sound recordings).

Tomorrow, I hope to dive into another part of the storystreaming idea. I’m not sure  what part, so please leave a comment below to let me know what you want to hear.

Orange County Register columnist and real estate blogger Jonathan Lansner has been using Twitter for over a year now. He frequently shares links, sometimes to articles and posts about social media. He are a few that he has selected (by including the #allink hashtag) to share with Almighty Link readers. Do you have social media or journalism tips to share?Add #allink in your tweets, and I will curate them here.

1. 
   jonlan Why use publicists when public is easily accessed? See 20 Must-Follow NFL Players on Twitter (@mashable) http://j.mp/Okbdq #allink 05 Oct 2009 from BigTweet
2. 
   jonlan How will this look years from now? NBA dunks tweeting, social media use by players, coaches during game. (ESPN) http://j.mp/3QOskn #allink 06 Oct 2009 from BigTweet
3. 
   jonlan At Dell Computer, social media is no longer communications it’s “evolved into a critical relationship builder” http://j.mp/9WeXG #allink 06 Oct 2009 from BigTweet
4. 
   jonlan Quality/quantity at Google: “Sometimes when you improve search, you actually get less clicks. And that’s fine.” http://j.mp/1Hzemk #allink 06 Oct 2009 from BigTweet
5. 
   jonlan A guy studies 40 million retweets, then devines 9 keys to getting retweeted. One tip? Links triple your chance! http://j.mp/15EDA9 #allink 07 Oct 2009 from BigTweet

— this quote was brought to you by quoteurl

What was once a weekly roundup of the most popular links that I’ve shared on Twitter has been sidetracked by 140pix. Since these links have been marinating for a couple of weeks, each one was clicked at least 100 times. You can receive Weekly Almighty Links as an email or add it to your RSS reader or custom home page.

The X Prizes for news (and media): Jeff Jarvis points out three news problems that need to be solved, and is looking for funding to award a prize to solve them.

Popular journalism Bookmarks on Delicious: This is simply a great source to find blog posts and articles that people tag as “journalism” as they save and share links.

Foursquare Beats Twitter to Local Advertising Goldmine: Jennifer Van Grove explains how a location-based social media game has figured out a way to encourage players to visit local stores, aka advertisers.

This is Twingly Channels: This is one of many products that hope to filter the amount of noise found in social media. Two screenshots lets you compare an unfiltered social stream with a filtered version.

Clive Thompson on How the Real-Time Web Is Leaving Google Behind: Wired takes a look at the many real-time search engines that are trying to make sense of, and/or improve search results by using, social media streams.

Spot.Us Expands to L.A. with Annenberg and a 10-month State of the Spot: David Cohn’s community-funded reporting project expands to Southern California. Cohn explains the details.

Sydney Armageddon: Stuart Ryan posted these incredible images from a huge Australian dust storm.

Project 10 to the 100: Google launched a “call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.” I referred to an idea to “build real-time, user-reported news service” when I tweeted this link.

Web journalism growing up fast: A quote from Fairfax Media online editor-in-chief Mike van Niekerk caught my eye. He said that their multimedia production are occasionally sponsored “although it is easier to sell advertising on straight video clips.”

Newspapers still producing great journalism: M. Scott Brauer shows off some great visual work being created on the web by newspaper organizations.

Tsunami hits American Samoa: The Associated Press story as served by Yahoo soon after the tsunami hit.

Follow journalism on Twitter with one click: This is my little list of people who frequently discuss journalism on Twitter.

Pictures tweeted from the #140tc Twitter Conference: Honestly, almost all of the links I shared to my 140pix side project were clicked on over 100 times, but I don’t want to waste time here with every headline, so feel free to visit the site or become a fan on Facebook for sneak peaks of posts to come.

I recently used Tweepml to create a list of Twitter users who frequently discuss different aspects of journalism. Tweepml lets you follow all of those people, or just those who interest you, in one fell swoop.

Who do you think should be added to the list? Leave your suggestions in the comments below or send me a tweet.

Big hat tip to Jon Lansner for bringing Tweepml to my attention.

Below is a nearly real-time list of web pages that members of my Delicious network have recently saved and tagged with words and phrases related to journalism. It was created using RSS feeds and Yahoo Pipes.

I had hoped to explain how you can build your own pipe to aggregate social bookmarks about topics that are important to you, but I’m not sure when I’ll get to that. For now, feel free to review my Delicious journalism pipe, embed it in your own blog, use its RSS feed, or clone the pipe and tweak it to suit your needs.

And this is the end.

After last week’s observation that users of the social-bookmarking site Delicious were turning to blogs to find (or at least save) news about journalism, I’ve been keeping an eye on the Delicious list of currently popular links tagged “journalism.” This week, a certain manifesto appeared twice in the top five list.

Instead of writing my own description of each link this week, I’m including descriptions written by other Delicious users. Visit their pages, or my Delicious page, to find more links that you might find interesting.

1. Eleven Things I’d Do If I Ran a News Organization: “Great list by Dan Gillmor, including transparency, audience participation, linking and more. (via Dave Winer)” ewanspence
2. Internet Manifesto: “Germany’s top bloggers have compiled a manifesto – a declaration which suggests principles of how journalism has changed and should work today. This is a great primer for students of digital journalism/new media to begin to get to grips with the changes in the media sector and approaches to journalism” pinowsky
3. 10 Ugly truths about modern journalism: “Journalism was screwed before the advent of the internet:discuss” 37sechsblog
4. Press Accuracy Rating Hits Two Decade Low: “Report and analysis of the continuing decline in confidence in “the media” h/t @patrickchareyre !” lidatsene
5. The ‘Internet Manifesto’ bucks a trend and gets mainstream media attention: “Journalism students publish a manifest on how journalism needs to be approached differently. Applies incredibly well to marketing as well.” EugenioMenezes

“The Weblog Manifesto” image courtesy of Kenneth Pinto via Flickr.