The dispute between Twitter and Google over changes made to Google’s search algorithm intensified overnight, as they disagreed on how the changes will impact search results for both social networks.
Yesterday, Google announced a suite of updates under the Search, plus Your World banner which, will see posts made on Google+ feature more on search results. Twitter was unhappy, releasing a statement saying the changes were bad news for social networking users, as they’ll make it harder for them to locate results from its site.
“For years, people have relied on Google to deliver the most relevant results anytime they wanted to find something on the internet,” it said, according to Mashable.
“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… we’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone.”
Google has now responded to Twitter, saying it’s “a bit surprised” by the comments, indicating the company chose not to renew an agreement last year which gave the search engine access to all public tweets.
Putting the dispute aside, SMBs need to be aware that the changes to Google’s search algorithm make it vital they build a business page on Google+ – and actually use it.
According to Google’s blog, the changes are broken down in three categories – personal results, profiles in search, and people and pages.
The first means posts and photos from friends Google+ pages that link to the search term will appear in search results.
The second change will see friends profiles appear when typing their name in the search bar, allowing users to more easily find people they know or might be interested in following. Once the search term is selected, users will be taken to a results page that includes information from their Google+ page and other web-related results.
The final change will mean users will see profiles of what Google considers to be “prominent people” associated with the users specific search term, and these will appear alongside search results. Google considers “prominent people” to be those who discuss a specific topic frequently on Google+.
How’s your business Google+ page coming along? For more in-depth information about the search changes, visit Google’s official blog.
