Fast on the heels of Google’s announcement it would be integrating Google+ results with its regular search results, Twitter released a statement opposing the new changes. Twitter spokesman Matt Graves said that people often rely on Google to deliver the most relevant results when they want to find something on the internet. Often, these results are coming from Twitter: “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”. This update will affect the reported 62 million users of Google+, making it a major update for them.
In its dissent, Twitter went on to describe itself as a “vital source of real time information” as it has 100 million users who send 250 million Tweets every day. By adding in Google+ results to Google’s search, finding the most relevant and up-to-date results about world news could be more difficult for users. As Twitter puts it, “we think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organizations, and Twitter users”.
Google was quick to respond, saying they were a “bit surprised by Twitter’s comments” as they did not renew their agreement with Google in the summer of 2011. This agreement gave the search engine access to public tweets on the Twitter network. By not renewing the contact, Twitter has already made it more difficult for users to receive results with
social media context, making Google representatives wonder about the outrage.
Since the initial announcement and backlash, though, social media outlets have been silent about the changes. Online news source Mashable reached out to Facebook representatives for comment, but they declined. What do you think about the changes to the Google search? And, more importantly, how will these changes affect your company’s website? SMT can help you navigate these changes.