We knew it was going to happen. When Google Plus launched, we knew it was the dawn of Social Search. Alan Hamlyn even coined the phrase "Social Search Optimization" in his post "Get Out Of The Way Seo, Hello Social Search!"
And happen it did. Jack Menzel, product management director of search, explained that now Google+ members will be able to "search across information that is private and only shared to you, not just the public web." It's being dubbed "Search Plus Your World."
Mashable's Lance Ulanoff puts it best saying "it's a significant blurring of the line between the web as we know it and the web as you and your Circles of friends know it." But, Menzel emphasizes "your world" results are only as good as the information in the posts and on the photos.
New Video, Just Released
Twitter Has Concerns
There's a lot of people up in arms about it, but, the most notable opponent is the microblogging giant, Twitter. Twitter spokesman Matt Graves:
For years, people have relied on Google to deliver the most relevant results anytime they wanted to find something on the Internet. Often, they want to know more about world events and breaking news. Twitter has emerged as a vital source of this real-time information, with more than 100 million users sending 250 million Tweets every day on virtually every topic. 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. We think that's bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users.
-Source, Mashable
This makes a lot more sense than you'd think. Back in February, Google announced social search which included Twitter, Flickr etc. But if you go the announcement, you see "content is out of date." Which content? Everything about any other social network, besides Google Plus, that is. Here is the original video they launched back in february, remember, this is the OUT OF DATE video, but may help to explain Twitter's reaction.
Old video from back in February:
What Do you Think?
Is Twitter right? Is this a bad change and a dirty move by Google to attempt to force their social network onto the public? One has to wonder, if Google Social Search is the new Google, is there room for an "old school" search company to emerge with a focus on simple, "authoritative search" based on good old link backs like the Google of old? Or is this just a natural step in this socially connected world?