Google+ Search Your World

Oh dear.
Ohhhh dear.

Beetches be crazay.

So, Google has decided to release integration of their Google+ network into search results. Twitter has put up a complaint, despite not renewing their agreement last year with Google to allow real time feeds of Twitter in their search engine. Honestly, Twitter is the biggest whiner thus far, and seems to be the only one at the moment. So let's start with them. It won't take long.

"Hey Twitter!"
"Hey Google."
"Bad day?"
"Just tired of not being the center of attention anymore. I mean...we're small, cute and convenient. What more do you need?"
"Well, your Twitter hits are that much more with us putting them right on the front page of searches! Speaking of which, it's time to renew our little agreement. It seems there are some changes, but nothing game breaking."
"Nah."
"Um...what?"
"We're working with Yahoo! and Microsoft and others now."
"You realize we're moving forward with Google+ right? It's going to be integrated into search...?"
"Yep. Thanks though!"
"If you say so...I mean...meh, never mind. See you in January!"
"What?"
"Nothing."

So not only did Twitter give the middle finger to Google in July of 2011, they are now complaining 6 months later about doing exactly what was told was going to happen. It's almost as if Twitter was calling Google's bluff. This is from that same article linked above:

Our vision is to have google.com/realtime include Google+ information along with other realtime data from a variety of sources.

This was said a long time ago. Why is Twitter putting up a hissy fit now? I'll tell you why: Google actually did it. Twitter's entire structure is based on relevance. If people don't tweet, Twitter dies. Slowly, but it will MySpace itself away into the ether. I personally like the idea of a social profile integrated into my search results.

Let me clarify though: I don't want just Google+. I loved Google RealTime Search when it was active, because when I used it I remember the time when the Samsung Galaxy S was expecting the Android update 2.2 and I set a RealTime search for T-Mobile's network (Froyo took a while...TOTALLY ironic though: I tweeted about it. lol!) Anyway, the tweets were showing up and blogs were posting about the update that I wanted and things worked wonderfully.

I can see, however, the problem that Twitter has with Google's results. If Google does indeed favor it's search results over the most relevant information (i.e. Mark Zuckerburg's profile on Google+ which has exactly zero posts rather than other more...usable information) then they are indeed violating their intent as a search engine. If they include all results, have a small area for social results then I can see how that would be pretty cool. Having results from Google+, Facebook, Path etc would seriously enhance my results. If my cousin, who lived in Germany for 12 years on an American base knew about German beer's and I Google Bitburg, his posts about Germany or Bitburg or beer would show up. It shouldn't matter what social network. That would be sweet. Personal information (ratings, recommendations, Genius etc.) is something that is reliable information because we trust the source. That's what Google is going for here. They aren't necessarily trying to push their results (although they have gotten hit for it in the past), they could be conceivably trying to get more accurate results. Fine by me.

Notice, speaking of the "Blue", that Facebook as remained conspicuously silent from this hissy fit. I think it's because of Microsoft's Bing and Facebook results already being paired. No one has said anything, and things have been smooth sailing. It's possible that Bing's market share, which is abysmal in comparison to Google's is small enough that no one cares. I mean, does anyone find it strange that Facebook goes with Bing and Twitter doesn't renew it's agreement with Google? One would think, economically, that these social networks (which again rely totally on exposure) would get the best deals they can with the biggest search engines out there. That includes Google. Yet, for all the exposure and search results that would..well..result from an agreement, the two biggest social networks on the planet (aside from the rising star of Google+) have decided not to use Google. Some have stated that a Google/Facebook/Twitter agreement would give Google an unfair "top down" view of those social networks data. This is fair to say, and possibly an agreement between the companies can be reached to alleviate those woes.

Personally Twitter has just possibly figured out that they got screwed, and it's like my sister choosing the bigger half and realizing that it was hollow on the inside. Twitter has always had a rocky history, and they've been close to failing before. Innovation and design have saved them multiple times, and now that they've realized that they made a bad decision...it seems petty to be screaming about it now.