Google V’s Twitter – Battle of the big guns
16 January 2012 - Digital
Google V’s Twitter – Battle of the big guns
The battle between Google and Twitter appears to be getting bigger and bigger with what seems to be a good old fashioned slanging match currently taking place, and in my eyes there can only be one winner.
For those that don’t know, Google launched its Google+ (Plus) service in June 2011 after the demise of Google Buzz. Google+ generated a big buzz (pardon the pun) amongst techies and search engine experts alike as a sort of grown-up and professional version of Facebook with bits of LinkedIn, Twitter and other social platforms thrown in for good measure. The fanfare that its launch produced was pretty impressive in the early months due to its perceived exclusivity making it like that new toy or gadget that you have got to get your hands on. As such the number of sign-ups was massive when it was rolled out further to anyone over 18.
Last month the number of users surpassed 62 million, at that growth rate the number of users will hit around 400 million by the end of the year!! This won’t be the case though, the huge number of Google+ sign-ups in the early months was out of curiosity and when you actually get in to the nitty-gritty of what Google+ has to offer you, for want of better words, it’s pretty rubbish. It has a few cool features and potential but the problem is – everyone you know is already on Facebook and most of those are also on Twitter and this fulfils most people’s social needs at the moment. Is there actually room in Average-Joe’s busy day to browse a whole different Social Media platform? Most people I know signed up and since then have rarely looked at it. On a personal note, compared to Facebook and Twitter I find Google+ dull (but that may just be me).
Google clearly feel strongly about the potential of Google+, far more so than it did about Buzz and with a base of 62 million people already, it is unlikely to go away. They are going to continue to push, promote and improve it as heavily as they can, and that’s where Twitter seem to be getting their knickers in a twist and doing a lot of whingeing in the press.
Google have announced that they are making changes to its results in order to integrate Google+ in to it. Calling it ‘Search plus Your World’, it will push results from Google+ up the rankings and really put it in the faces of users. This will only apply to users signed in to their Google accounts and will fire back far more personal and tailored search results related to the information Google knows about you, your friends and your acquaintances. It sounds like a big change but until it’s fully rolled out nobody really knows how much of a difference it will actually make.
Twitter is making a big deal of it though, with their lawyer and ex-Google employee Alex Macgillivray labelling it a “bad day for the internet”.
Twitter expanded further with an official statement including “For years, people have relied on Google to deliver the most relevant results any time they wanted to find something on the internet.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.”
All sounds very right-on but would Twitter be kicking up a stink if their Tweets dominated the top of the search results for every Google search imaginable? Would this provide a good search experience for Google users? I think the answer to both of these questions is “no”.
At the end of the day, Google is just a website and just a business like any other, it just happens to have grown astronomically to the point where almost everybody on the internet in the world uses it and thinks of it first when they want to find something. Off the back of Google millionaires are made across the globe and that’s why any changes they make are scrutinised so thoroughly by anyone who thinks it may affect them negatively. Google is not a regulating body, it is a website, if they want to promote their own product (Google+) ahead of somebody else’s (Twitter) then surely they are entitled to do so.
My money’s on Google in this current battle. If you don’t like Google or are unhappy with it then the answer is simple – don’t use it. It isn’t compulsory and as the owners, they can do what they want with it. Maybe Twitter should remember that in a world where search and social media are becoming more and more entwined.
For more information on Google’s changes or to discuss any aspects of social media, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Categories
