Kul Bhushan

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Posted on 12-01-2012

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Google's latest feature Search plus Your World hasn't gone well with Twitter. The micro blogging site lashed out Google over changes to its search engine results, dubbing the move as “bad” for users and web publishers. "As we’ve seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter,” a statement released by Twitter said. "We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone." Google's Search plus Your World automatically pushes results from the social networking site Google+.

Google has shot back at Twitter, saying it was Twitter which decided not to renew with Google. “We are a bit surprised by Twitter’s comments, because they chose not to renew their agreement with us last summer,” read a post on Google’s Google+ page, “and since then we have observed their rel=nofollow instructions.” Rel=nofollow code prevents search engines from following links. Under the agreement between the two parties, Twitter allowed the Google search engine access to public tweets on the site (also listed in realtime feature). However, the deal expired in July and was not renewed. Now Google is pressing that Twitter had decided not to renew the agreement.

In an attempt to vindicate claims, Twitter general counsel Alex Macgillvray tweeted with an example, how the Google search engine excluded Twitter results. He posted a screen shot of the search engine result when he typed @WWE into Google. "Here’s what a user searching for '@WWE' will be shone (sic) on the new @Google," he wrote. The search result includes WWE's website, Google+ page and other Google+, but no Twitter page.

Do you also believe Google's changes to its search engine results are really bad for users? Or, Twitter is just overreacting? Let us know in the comments section below:

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