Artwork by Street and Digital Artist Zevs

Being in real-time (or multiple times) is simply a way of life for most young people today, especially among the most savvy cell phone and internet users, which is one reason why, for example, most young people in America searched YouTube to “watch” the Grammy’s live rather than wait for them to show up on mainstream online media last week. (Don’t forget, not everyone watches TV.)

The growing popularity of Twitter, which allows people to respond in near real-time to Tweets, and which caused major security issues when a Congressman on his way to Iraq Twittered accounts of his trip, is a shoe-in for young people that have simply grown up with a lifetime of fast technology. It’s this demographic that perpetuates the killer app wars. But what’s causing Google to melt, which owns YouTube, and therefore practically owns video search, is the Twitter search capabilities from a search engine Twitter bought called Summize. Because it searches social tweets or live social conversations now, i.e., “Did No Age really play at The Smell?” it delivers what you’re looking for, albeit in a shorter form, fast. Google, for example might have a list of stories on the same topic but it can take more than a day -which, let’s face it, is a lifetime.

Facebook offered $500 million for Twitter (even though they’re not too sure how to monetize it yet) and there are rumors that Google may try to create its own Twitter-like search, but for now Twitter’s ahead of the game in social search and gaining traffic at unprecedented rates. Especially among youth culture.

For more on Twitter’s impact on the North American youth marketplace, stay tuned for Label Networks’ upcoming bi-annual Spring Study 2009 and 4th annual Digital Youth Culture Lifestyle Report. For subscription information, email info@labelnetworks.com; (323) 630-4000.