Bit.ly links are everywhere on Twitter, Facebook and what not. Though there are several URL shorteners out there, Bit.ly was one of the first apps in this field. Taking this as an advantage, they have released Realtime – a search engine which helps you find viral content.
The webapp is pretty straight forward, showing the Bit.ly links with most number of clicks.
That also means links which aren’t using Bit.ly are missing out. You can also filter out the results using search term, topic, country, website and even social network.
For example, you’ll be able to see what’s trending on Facebook right now. It won’t be that useful for Twitter, as you already have Twitter trends which is now tailored for you.
You can add the shown links to your Bitmarks with a click, which you can share or add notes afterwards. As always, you can add a ‘+’ sign to any Bit.ly link to get deep statistics related to it.
Recently Digg was sold out to Betaworks for a mere half a million dollars, it tried to do pretty much same thing. Reddit on the other hand, is very strong because of its loyal community, though Bit.ly has taken a totally different approach to track viral content.
Realtime is a product of Bit.ly labs, so it’s still in beta and invite-only. But you can always sign up for one with a Bit.ly account, I got mine very quickly and sadly there’s no option to invite other people.
Link: Realtime