Recently, Google debuted a new service that lets you search “global” results, or search within Google Plus and Picasa — aka the toggle that nobody is actually going to use — because everybody wants global results and nobody posts to Google Plus anyway.
You’d think they’d announced a new utterly evil service, like Google Kitten Stomp or Google Infidelity or something, based on the way Twitter reacted to the news.
Twitter reasonably enough sees that move as a threat, since it could well encourage people to share breaking news on Google+ rather than Twitter. But it’s a bit of a stretch to say Google’s new function could make Twitter information harder to find, since it’s every bit as accessible as before. If anything, Twitter lost much more visibility last July, when its two-year-old deal allowing Google to index and display real-time tweets expired.
It’s that same tiresome refrain: Somebody, in this case Twitter, starts getting all snippy with Google and tells it not to index them anymore, and then turns around and whines about how Google isn’t putting their information at the top of every search. Belgian newspapers pioneered it, but apparently everybody has to do this now.
And now tech columnists are saying “Oh, the Justice Department will totally get involved.” No they won’t, guys. They’re not the Department of First World Problems. If Google were somehow forcing the search solely to Google content, then yes, there would be an anti-trust case. Instead it’s a radio button that probably not even the team that developed it uses.
Geez, remember when everybody liked Google?
(photo via dmixo6 on Flickr)