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MICROBLOGGING SITE TWITTER has criticised changes made by Google to its search results page, saying that the alterations are bad for “people, publishers, news organisations and Twitter users”.
In a statement, Twitter accused Google of boosting information posted on its newly-launched social networking site Google+ in standard search results.
“For years, people have relied on Google to deliver the most relevant results anytime they wanted to find something on the Internet,” the company said. “Twitter has emerged as a vital source of this real-time information… as we’ve seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter; as a result, Twitter accounts and Tweets are often the most relevant results”, it said.
The company added that it was “concerned” that as a result of the changes being applied by Google finding such information will be “harder for everyone”, reports The Inquirer.
Google has explained that it imposed the changes with a view to “transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships”. It introduced three new features yesterday, as part of “Search plus Your World”, which are currently only being applied in the US: Personal Results, Profiles in Search, and People and Pages (see Google’s promotional video on the new features).
A spokesperson for Google voiced “surprise” at Twitter’s comments, telling Reuters: “We are a bit surprised by Twitter’s comments about Search plus Your World, because they chose not to renew their agreement with us last summer”.
In 2009, Twitter and Google signed an agreement that allowed Google to present a real-time feed of tweets within its search results – however, that agreement expired in July 2011.
The Guardian reports that neither Twitter nor Facebook information generally appears in Google searches because neither company gives unlimited access to their content with Google.
Google+ posts can be referred to in search results because Google+ allows the sharing of that information. The system doesn’t just highlight Google+ content; it can show content from Flickr, Quora, WordPress, FriendFeed, LiveJournal, etc.
Twitter, Facebook et al could also be included here if they allowed Google access to the data. People may remember when Google used to show real-time tweets in search results until Twitter pulled the plug.
Yep and it was annoying having yr search results crowded out with tweets
Like the feature or not – it was Twitter that decided they didn’t want it in place, now they are the ones giving out about Google including content from Google+ – they could be up there too if they wanted.
Hopefully ‘Show Personal Results’ won’t be on by default, as they imply it won’t, in the video. Otherwise it’s really throwing a spanner in the works of SEO and searching in general.
With Adwords’ Ads, and Maps now appearing on the tops of most searches the actual results are being pushed further and further down the page, and in some cases are below the fold.
The original appeal of Google was its simplicity and clean interface, with every change they make they’re moving further and further away from that UX.
As long as they continue to provide relevant search results, they shouldn’t worry about SEO. That industry only exists because it’s so valuable to be high in Google’s ranking, so it’s not like Google owes them a living.
From an experience point of view, I can only speak for myself, but I find the Maps very useful. They usually only appear when they are relevant and they are easily skipped over if not.
I have stopped using google.. As it is really annoying..
can you explain fay? Annoying how?
Really like to know Fay, what annoys you when you use google?
It’s interesting, when Microsoft included Internet Explorer with Windows – all anti-monopoly agencies were all over it…
Google does whatever they want, with promoting their web browser on home page, now google plus in search results… How come that’s not abusing their primary position as search engine??
And they openly admit to have a large budget ready for court cases – this is the moment when giant grew way larger than it should ever be allowed…
This isn’t the same as Microsoft including IE with Windows.
Google can promote Chrome on the homepage as it’s a Google property – they also promote many other things from time to time such as public and charity information during natural disasters, etc.
Windows is Microsoft property…
‘a property’, not ‘property’ – A person buys a licence to use a copy of windows on their own computer – nobody buys a licence to use Google, it’s a freely available service.
The main problem with google is that it has made internet users lazy and ignorant. I work in Customer Services and the amount of times I’ve had to explain to a customer that Google is not an address bar isn’t funny.
It is an address bar, on chrome..
If net neutrality comes down to google vs Facebook it’s a no brainer for me … Google all the way
Wish google would give up on + it’s rubbish!!! Ruining what otherwise is a great Internet group, GMail, YouTube etc… (I’m 99% sure YouTube is google?)
Google+ actually isn’t that bad BUT I have a Facebook profile and I don’t see what benefit Google+ would be to me personally. If it just became more of a hassle to use Facebook then I would consider changing over. I have a feeling that Google are trying to make that the case. Maybe it’s time for Facebook to launch a search engine?
@kyp Google has a long-term plan for Google+, this new change to its SERP is just one of many recent integrations between Google’s other products and Google+, you’ll find yourself using it more often as more products are integrated.
It’s ‘rubbish’ because it lacks content and active users, how long it stays that way is anyone’s guess, but the one thing you can say for sure is Google are not going to give up on it in the near future.
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