First of all, Happy 2012! It’s been a while since I’ve posted and my new years resolution is to write more, so lets kick off with the right foot forward…
It appears today as is Google and twitter have had a lovers tiff. For those who are not aware, Google and twitter had a working relationship for a short period in 2011 where Google served up relevant tweets in SERPs. Google however was required to pay for this service, and after a few months they stopped providing these tweets. Shortly afterwards, Google+ was launched.
Today, Google has started serving Google+ posts within SERPs and this has angered twitter who have accused Google of ‘warping’ search results and breaking antitrust rules. Whilst this is only visible in the US and not yet here in Australia, you’ll find when searching for people (whilst logged in) via google.com you’ll see some results from Google’s social network, Google+ within the first page of results. Why are they Google doing this? My guess is to create even further exposure to the Google+ platform – as if having a huge blue arrow pointing to ‘You’ wasn’t enough, by integrating Google+ results into SERPs users will be even more aware of the network and more likely to become members.
Twitter’s response was:
“For years, people have relied on Google to deliver the most relevant results any time they wanted to find something on the internet.
“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. We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organisations and Twitter users.”
In response, Amit Singhai (two posts in a row I’ve quoted Amit! maybe I need an Amit fan club badge..), said:
“We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships.”
Amit went further to explain that Google is looking to introduce a “toggle” that will allow users to easily select whether results are personalised or not. Personally, I feel the privacy issues Google are currently facing could be their downfall, but I’m sure thats a long way off.
Danny Sullivan, of Search Engine Land, isn’t convinced about the recent change:
“Search engines are supposed to send you away to the best information, even if they don’t have their own in stock. Today’s change is one of the few times where I’m thinking ‘What the hell are you doing, Google?’ “
Google are certainly facing a lot of criticism with this latest move at the beginning of 2012 on the back of so many unprecedented changes to SERPs and the algorithm in 2011 (that’s given many SEO a headache!). Google are continuing to promote their own products and services (try searching for hotels or flights and the top results will be Google, NOT the specialist comparison engines).
We must however remember that Google is just one search engine; it is not THE search engine. We do have a choice and we don’t have to use Google. Sadly, I think a lot of people think that Google IS the Internet so until such time as people are educated to understand they can use browsers and search engines that aren’t influenced by Google they’re stuck being served content that fits Google’s principles.
