The Other Side of the Google vs Twitter Saga
There is so much hoo ha about Twitter killing Google and Twitter being the future search tool. Every single article that you read about Twitter is that they do things in real time, real time discussions and buzz, which is something that Google’s results do not really do and do not really cater for at the moment.
Google has responded with so many different methods, the most recent being feeding in Twitter results into the SERPs and having the option to bring in results that were updated in the last hour. But in my personal opinion twitter is a social site like any other site. There are some downsides to the service in my opinion, which are as follows.
Information
Information and news is all very well and good being in real time, but what if someone wants to find old archived information or read older stories, can they do that? No they simply cannot, because it’s all in real time and sites are actually never crawled and indexed, it is going to be very hard.
Products
Now this in my opinion is the main killer for Twitter and it’s something that Google are doing wrong too. Google are now trying to bring in more real time results and results which are current that people have just posted or talked about. Every non tech person (the mass user) I know uses either EBay, Google or Amazon to buy something, with Google probably being the first choice. They do this because one, it’s easy just type into the search and away you go. Two it’s relevant, Google have never let me down when I want to buy something, they deliver the most trusted sites to me. Now what could these product searches do instead? Search on Twitter and get conversations? No thanks, or create an account and ask your 0 followers to help you out? Or I know, grow your network communicate with people you do not know and ask them, but why? Why would anyone do that? People have busy lives and they do not have enough time to constantly update their tweets. What easier solution then to go to Google and type in what you are looking for, does it have to be real time. No, not at all, trusted products from trusted sites which have built that trust with hard work and clever advertising.
Now do not get me wrong twitter has a place in the market for news and stories, but Google is so much more than that, maybe they are beating Google on the news front and if Google want to jump on that bandwagon and fill their SERPs with real time STORIES then fine, maybe it would be a better way for them to earn revenue. I mean what a clever idea to fill the SERPs with ever changing info and letting the businesses (products), battle it out on the PPC side of things. But I can tell you they are going to lose a lot of users if they do as Google is not just an information engine. Twitter is a social site just like any other that we need to use in conjunction not against. MSN Messenger does exactly the same job for me but better, I talk to people I know in real time and can ask them anything I want. I do not think Twitter can ever overtake Google, but can be a useful tool to use if you have the time, which a lot of non tech people do not. I mean was MySpace not a Google killer? Was Digg Not? Wolfram Alpha, Cuil? Stumble? Twitter is a great real time news and information addition to Google; all this makes Google a better search engine.
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I think there is a distinctive place for both Twitter and Google. Twitter is powerful for real time relevant issues, but Google is far more powerful in every other way.
Great post. I don’t think Google has to worry much about Twitter. Twitter is a fad in my opinion, just like MySpace once was, and now look at how much traffic MySpace has lost in the past 6 months.
In my opinion that’s like comparing apples to oranges.
You won’t walk into a library to search for opinions about a footballgame, that ended just a few seconds ago.
i think they have different use, but if they can combine it will very good
Spot on. Twitter’s good for dissemination information and opinion quickly, but there’s just no depth to it. Google will just adopt the bits that work for search, cast the rest aside, and carry on regardless.
Great article, but there’s one huge difference between twitter n google.
Google counts or tries to, all the websites in the world when Twitter only has a couple of millions of users.
Twitter doesn’t have any advanced systems of determining what’s more important and always uses a chronological order, when Google has a system that at least allows you to see last weeks info now, but with relevant order.
Hi There,
I think Google and Twitter should just get married, why not right? I know some might be thinking why not just be neighbors.
.
Thanks,
Chris Pontine
Google will still remain at their place of being number 1. Knowing Google, the company will surely find ways to compete with Twitter. As you can see, lots of services provided by Google to their users that are very useful.
Nice Post, I agree that Twitter is very effective in the dissemination of information or news in real time, whereas Google has the advantage of storage news with indefinite time
I will only comment on google only. Google is a giant web of the world trying to provide all services. You could say ONE STOP SERVICE. All provided by Google, search, shopping, webmaster tools, web hosting, business etc.. Google expectation is that all people use google every using the Internet. From what I see, google prioritize access speed, so users are not hampered by the slow loading. If you look at Yahoo, too slow loadingnya. Maybe then google will have a special place in the eyes of Internet users. Google’s move on. Good Luck
I recently read an article that mentioned that microsoft has tied up with a social networking site to provide live content in search engine, but google wont sit back. It will bounce back
The usefulness of Twitter is incomparable to the benefit we can get from Google. That’s basically the reason why Google still holds the crown to be at the top.
think Google and Twitter should just get married, why not right? I know some might be thinking why not just be neighbors
Twitter has become and is becoming more and more popular each day.and it will be very good to us thanks.
Twitter’s evolution over the past year has shown it up for what it is – a split camp of followers/non-followers. I don’t think for a minute that it will overtake or replace google – or any other search engine for that matter. Realtime news has limited appeal before it is disseminated to other news providers. Are all searchers looking for gossip? I don’t think so.
Google could pat twitter on the head in an instant by simpy adding it as an option the same way it does for forums, blogs etc.
I think both Google and Twitter can co-exist. Since real-time search is a feature that no search engine can ignore, Google will naturally incorporate this feature. But, Google Search has versatile features vis-a-vis Twitter that has a limited specific field to operate in. It is in the interest of the users that both should prosper.
twitter… google… Im not sure about the similarities!?!?! let’s just talk about their differences ok?
Twitter is a place where mostly people advertise and it does get annoying. Google is to big for twitter to take over it and I personally dont like twitter.
I have 31K followers on twitter. I still don’t think twitter had reached it’s full potential. It’s just the first stepping stone to the emergence of a full blown real-time internet.
Twitter has become and is becoming more and more popular each day.and it will be very good to us thanks.
True that Google is said and thought by many in the Twitter’s era to be a dying tool… But on my personal side… I think that google is just growing up. Twitter as you mention in your post is more of a social media site and that too without the availability of history. It just contains what is fed into it and thats all. Google on the other hand is now a billion dollar industry in itself. It has diverse apllications and it will take a hell lot of a time for any other organization come near it.
Fundamentally, Google is a search tool and Twitter is a communication tool. Twitter search is quite useful for finding out what chatter is going on right now about something happening right now, but it’s like walking into a stadium full of people talking – white noise. Google is still the king at providing relevant results. I think it’s a bit like comparing the telephone with the television. They do different things.
I don’t anyone that has the internet hasn’t heard of Twitter, it’s huge these days I went into my local bookstore and there was a whole section dedicated to books purely based on Twitter, I couldn’t believe it. I like Twitter but I thought that was kind of crazy to see.