Google and Twitter have had an agreement since 2009 allowing tweets to be included in Google’s search results through a specific feed. By including Twitter updates into the Google search results, a whole new mass of information was available to users. This gave a real time search option for users to gain information through an up-to-the-minute source of data that are tweets.
On June 28, 2011, Google launched its test version of their new social media project called Google+ (Google Plus, or G+). After only 4 weeks into its limited trial stage, Google+ had reached 25 million users. Around this same time Google’s new Real Time Search algorithm update had vanished. It now gives a 404 error when trying to access it. The Google/ Twitter agreement expired on July 2, 2011. Google simply stated that their agreement with Twitter had “expired.” Google also stated that the Real Time Search update will commence, but this time without Twitter and it will incorporate the new Google+ feature, as well as from a “variety of other sources” for its real time data.
Although tweets will continue to show up in Google search results, they are just not as fast as they had been before and Google won’t have the large collection they had when the agreement was still intact. Google can still crawl Twitter, but just on a smaller scale than they previously could. Some tests have been conducted by webmasters to see how long a tweet takes to show up in Google’s search results. The difference ended up being hours as opposed to instantly before the agreement was terminated. This might not matter as Google+ continues to grow, as it may very well be an incredible source of real time data that Google thinks will suffice.
It is unknown who, Google or Twitter, let the agreement expire or under what conditions made either company not want to continue to work with the other. If Twitter let the agreement lapse, did they sense a competition with Google+ or feel intimidated? If Google was the culprit, did they simply refuse to shell out the $30 million per year for Twitters information? Maybe Google felt it didn’t need to spend so much money when their own social network is destined to take off. Is Google jumping the gun with a foreseen success of Google+ to be comparable to Twitter or Facebook? Although some social network sites have survived while up against the social giants of Facebook and Twitter, but some social sites have never even been heard of before they were dead in the water.
It has been speculated that Google didn’t renew the agreement with Twitter so that it can showcase Google+ as the social search site used for their Real Time Search. It has also been said that the relationship between Google and Twitter went south because of the advertising revenue demands and the price and terms of data licensing. Perhaps Twitter feels confident enough with their agreement for a similar social search with Bing, although rumors have been circulating about Bing’s agreement with Twitter not being renewed either.
The question lingers, did Google time out the launch of Google+ with the end in sight of their agreement with Twitter? Or is it just a big coincidence? Does Google feel that Google+ could kill off Twitter, or at least become one of its biggest competitors? Even more so, do users really need another social networking site? As with most things, time will tell. If Bing continues their similar to Google contract with Twitter, Microsoft will have access to both Facebook and Twitter, the biggest social networking sites and real-time data sources. It will be interesting to see the effects of Google’s latest decisions and see where it takes the company and the users.
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