Press Release here.

In the past several months I’ve written about the effects of splintering media, the amazing new medium exemplified in Twitter and how social networks are changing news.

Inherent in that has been the idea that the web – or what we know today as our online life – is in mid transformation and we’re in a unique punctuated time in the evolution of the Web. A point where the new winners are being defined and previous leaders risk becoming irrelevant.

I’ve also written about how the online world is operating on old ideas. Our previous approaches are not human enough, intuitive enough or timely enough to carry us into the next phase of the Internet.

It’s a world where infinite bandwidth and constant connection to the digital cloud provide us with news, entertainment, communication and commerce in a seamless flow that keeps pace with our human need for More, Faster and Better. Every depiction of the digital futute paints a picture of rapid-fire information intake and overload. Who doesn’t feel it?

Where is this leading? How is our reality going to be different?

We’ve got more stuff flying by than we know what to do with – we need Realtime search.

Media has splintered down to an individual level, where all of my acquaintances – as well as the traditional sources of information – are generating vast volumes of information every day. Information I may be interested in if I only had better tools to reach into the flow and collect things that are relevant to me. If I don’t tap into it effectively I’ll lose control and miss critical bits of info all together.

That’s a problem.

The answer is simple – but until now nearly impossible to create. I should be able to activate a query – set it out like a net to collect results on anything at all – and wait for the results to flow by.Some things like school lunch menus and research on mesothelioma may not be so timely, but it would be good to have an active query watch those things for me.

Other things like trade-able information on a stock in my portfolio, or details on a TV show while I am watching it, those things may very valuable to me in realtime.

This is the next frontier online, and it’s just beginning. Over time there will be the full range of experiences, business model modifications, and controversies to go with it.

There is an opportunity for a company or set of companies to blaze the trail and create the new, fast-twitch experience for realtime. This is not a small opportunity, John Battelle agrees.

So seeing the vision is the first part. The second is mobilizing to make it a reality.

In meeting up with Collecta (formerly Stanziq) I have found a team with the experience and a technology worthy of attacking to opportunity.

Today we are announcing the creation of Collecta and, with the support and excitement of founders Jack Moffitt, Patrick Mahoney and Brian Zisk as well as Jon Callaghan of True Ventures, I am joining as CEO and rolling in my pet project, Shrty.

Based on its roots in Stanziq, Collecta is already a strong search company driven by a truly innovative group of people: Jack Moffitt, Brian Zisk, Derek Powazek and a deep team of experts – focusing singularly on making a search of the web into a realtime experience. Check out the team bios on Collecta.com

Together we make a solid, rounded team for building a realtime search company.

Collecta has created a platform that promises to open up a new dimension in searching. It complements web search as we know it and add a new level of control and excitement to daily info-gathering.

The platform is in pre-beta, products will come very soon. Keep an eye out.