So now it’s happening. Google made an announcement on Twitter recently that public status updates from Facebook are included in their search feature. That means the world’s largest social network is now part of Google’s real-time search alongside MySpace, Twitter, Google Buzz, FriendFeed, Jaiku, Identi.ca, TwitArmy, Google News links, Google Blog Search links, new web pages and freshly updated pages.

Remember though that Google mostly only shows the real-time results for newsy/trending topics.

The small print from Google on the new Facebook development reveals that only updates from Facebook pages are indexed, including links, status updates, photos, videos shared by page owners. This does not include comments made by the fans.

So if your business or brand does not yet have a Facebook page it’s time you sorted it – and started promoting the page, too.

So as Google and Microsoft sign deals with Twitter, now is the time to start becoming a little smarter at getting found in “real-time” searches. Basically it boils down to staying in the “real-time” conversation for relevant topics that people are searching for.

Top tips for Twittering (or other social media chit-chatting) include: using keywords, talking about current events, having lots of followers, starting conversations and getting responses.

It’s like having a conversation with a massive community of people and trying to get as many people interested in what you have to say as possible. Chatterbox away…but keep it relevant.

Expect to hear more about “real-time” searches in future blogs.