Twitter slams Google search changes

Google is facing criticism from Twitter and accusations of fixing its search results and breaking antitrust rules by boosting posts from its Google+ social network in its standard search results.

The changes, under implementation in the US via google.com, mean that when people search for information, particularly about individuals, while logged in to Google+, results from the social network would be prominently displayed on the first page of search results along with other results from the wider web.

This would make existing Google+ users more likely to use the network, as they would see fewer results from outside it while searching for information. About 90 per cent of the  click throughs originate from the first page of search results on PCs.

According to Twitter's lead lawyer, Alex Macgillivray, it was a "bad day for the internet", and suggested – as a former Google employee that it would have been internally opposed.

In a follow up later the company said in a statement, "For years, people have relied on Google to deliver the most relevant results any time they wanted to find something on the internet.

"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 organisations and Twitter users."