Google's 'Personalised' Search Raises One Too Many Eyebrows

Google's Search Plus Your World (SPYW) announcement seems to have rubbed some the wrong way. By 'personalization of results', most people were expecting the obvious social networking real-time results but what Google had to offer was a narrowed-down spotlight on Google+.

The new search feature which involves more personalised information added to search engine results has turned out to be a regressive move for Google rather than a progressive one. The major reason behind this is putting Google+ results before Twitter and Facebook irrespective of which one fits better. If you are logged in with your Google+ account your results will span everything from your Google+ photos and posts to other people’s Google+ profiles. This is done so as to assist you in finding whom you’re close to or who you might want to follow, along with Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest. But aren't Facebook and Twitter an equally eligible choice for the same?

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As has been found with recent search attempts, searching for celebrities points you to their Google+ Page, leaving out their corresponding Facebook and Twitter accounts. So that means, if you're not on Google+, you may not come up as a suggestion at all. Google has obviously rated Google+ pages higher for all kinds of queries, not caring if it produces a sensible result or not.

Twitter has openly reacted to Google's new feature, a Twitter spokesman saying, "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.” Google promptly responded to the comments, “Facebook and Twitter and other services, basically, their terms of service don’t allow us to crawl them deeply and store things. Google+ is the only [network] that provides such a persistent service”, as told to Google's Results Get More Personal With "Search Plus Your World".

No official word from Facebook yet, though some members associated with the organization have been quoted to condemn Google's move, several of them endorsing a #-Link-Snipped-# article about switching your default search engine to Bing. I do not know if this is a thought-out tactical move to advertise Google+ but as of now things don't seem to be going in favor with the flak Google is receiving.

Source: #-Link-Snipped-# Image Credit: Real-Life Examples Of How Google's "Search Plus" Pushes Google+ Over Relevancy