When Google released its new social-integrated search, Google users, as well as other social networks, expressed outrage that the new system seemed to promote Google+ links over more relevant social content. The Google+ saturated version of the Google search seems to give an unfair ranking advantage to Google’s own social network, raising antitrust concerns.
And with good reason – Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan has pointed out several instances where Search Plus Your World sacrifices relevance to promote Google+ Pages – like linking Mark Zuckerberg’s unused Google+ account as relevant to a search for “Facebook.” But what may be more troubling is that Search Plus Your World means individuals and business that want priority in a Google search are forced to make Google+ a priority.
Arguments have followed about the complications of including relevant content from other social networks like Twitter and Facebook – but a new bookmarklet shows that better integration is not really that difficult. Built by engineers from Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, “Don’t Be Evil” uses Google’s own relevance measure to better complete Google’s social search.
According to the project’s website, this bookmarklet “looks at the three places where Google only shows Google+ results and then automatically googles Google to see if Google finds a result more relevant than Google+” – whether that result comes from Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook. It also makes the links suggested by Google’s auto-complete less Google+ exclusive.
“Don’t Be Evil” does seem to present a good case for a truly social (and less Google+ dominated) search – and it will be interesting to see how Google responds to the modified version of its search. To install the bookmarklet yourself, check out the website Focus on the User.
(Via Business Insider, Image via Focus on the User)
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