Google 'falling behind Twitter'•

Source: Guardian (UK)

Google 'falling behind Twitter'•

Co-founder Larry Page says search engine has been losing out to micro-blogging site in battle to provide real-time information

• Chief executive hints that Google could go into partnership with Twitter

Richard Wray guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday 19 May 2009 20.26 BST Article history



Google's co-founder, Larry Page, admitted today that the company has been losing out to Twitter in the race to meet web user's demand for real-time information.

Instead, the search engine's chairman and chief executive, Eric Schmidt, hinted that it could become a partner of the micro-blogging site. Twitter has come from nowhere to become the third most visited social networking site in the US in just three years by allowing its users to broadcast their thoughts, actions and news instantly.

Google's search engine, in contrast, can take hours or even days to update. While this is usually not a problem as accuracy of results is more important than speed of updating, as the internet community comes to demand ever faster information Twitter has left Google in its wake.

"People really want to do stuff real time and I think they have done a great job about it," Page said in a closing address at Google's Zeitgeist conference . "I think we have done a relatively poor job of creating things that work on a per-second basis."

He told the audience about the impact of technology on the world and that he has been asking his research teams to get faster. "Now I think they understand that," he said. "I think we will do a better job of some of those things."

But he admitted that there is a trade-off between making information instantly available and ensuring its accuracy.

The rise of Twitter has sparked speculation that the cash-rich Google could buy the business. Speaking after the event, Schmidt refused to comment on that speculation but admitted "they have done a very good job of 'what am I doing right now' – their tagline – it is very impressive."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/may/19/google-twitter-partnership

My money is on Google. I believe that Twitter is a fad.

Twitter has yet to alter it's interface. I can readily imagine what improvements will be made. Simplicity and brevity will capture the average person's attention. Same reason why instant messaging killed chat rooms.

ICQ (just one example) was around since 1996, and IRC chatrooms were doing quite well co-existing with this and other messaging software at the time. Chatting is an entirely different format of communication than messaging, targeted at an entirely different demographic (for those seeking real-time interaction with large communities of different people).

Google is not poised to be yesterday's news anytime soon. There level of constant innovations is amazing.

I'm aware of the history. I've been around since BBS's. I'm not saying Google is going away, just that all of the Twitter naysaying is misguided. If Google is eyeing to buy them out, they see them as serious competition.

Twitter is for twits.

Blanket dismissal of something one hasn't the imagination for is for blank minds.

consciousness is one of "what is neat and cool today".

Twitter might have some staying power but then again it might not.

who knows?

Google will remain the leader in its non-ass-backwards niche

I love google though.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:shrug:

Locating specific (potentially long and detailed) information I am actively looking for v. passively receiving a flood of general (headline) information.

Don't really think they are competing - unless Google now offers a microblogging product (in which case I take it all back, and Google has already lost since I don't even know their competing product exists).

...You could search peoples' stored-online bookmarks for answers to things. It worked amazingly well ("Problems OSX Leopard firewire" got me the answer Google didn't...).

I can see a fully-indexed Twitter being a useful search tool. :shrug:

until twitter can show a profit and stop living off corporate donations, I don't see a future for it.

Honestly, how would it make money? Unless they start charging per twit (love that), they are going to vanish. But if they start charging for each twit (still love that lol), they will die as their devoted fans would leave them to the next free shiny object.

:shrug:

but i use google multiple times every day.

Google has no guards at the gate, I use it dozens of times a day.

did it during Obama's speech that was in place of the SOTU.

They gave twitter a bad name.

refuse to go there.

It's anti-cool in my book.