Twitter vs. Google’s ‘World’

Google’s Search Plus Your World, a new service that integrates the company’s search feature with Google+, has found a big critic in Twitter.

Search Plus Your World is an important development not just for the long-term viability of Google+, but also for communicators who want to remain visible on the Web beyond unique content and inbound links. More than ever, PR pros need to be adept at both social media marketing and search engine optimization.

Twitter blasted the new offering in a statement released on Jan. 10. “As we’ve seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter,” the company said. “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 organizations and Twitter users.”

The crux of the issue is that Twitter user results do not show up on Google search results, while, due to the aforementioned changes, Google+’s will.

For what it’s worth, Google responded to Twitter’s criticism via a statement saying that it was “surprised by Twitter’s comments,” considering how Twitter chose not to renew a search agreement between the two companies, which populated search results with relevant Twitter users and tweets.

While the two companies argue over the issue of Google integrating social with search, Twitter's argument against Search Plus Your World reinforces the notion that PR pros can’t only be present on one social media channel. Twitter is important in breaking news and fostering conversation and, as Google has now established, Google+ will be a big deal whenever someone uses Google search.