Twitter: Google's Changes Today Are Bad for "People, Publishers, News Organizations and Twitter Users"

With the launch of its updated personal search results, Google introduced a massive change to its search algorithm today. The reaction among the tech pundits so far has been mixed, especially given that Google – which was once considered a neutral player – now seems to be giving highly preferential treatment to its own social network. Twitter, which used to have a partnership with Google until 2011, just released a statement that expresses "concern" over the fact that Google may now be making it harder "for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users" to find information from its network.

It's worth noting that Google still uses some public data from other social networks to boost the search rankings of websites your friends may have shared online. It is clearly giving higher priority to its own network, however.

Here is the full statement from Twitter:

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.