Don't Be Evil': Social Media Sites Gang Up on Google With New Search Tool

Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have turned Google's own slogan against it, creating a new tool that changes the search results of Google's Search Plus Your World.

According to Search Engine Land, the "Don't Be Evil" tool gives users "more relevant search results". As of right now, certain searches conducted in Google's new Search Plus Your World feature favor information from Google+ -- over other social media sites -- in the following categories:

• People & Pages results
• Google+ Sitelinks
• Google+ Suggestions In Autocomplete

According to Search Engine Land, the tool was created by Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and an unnamed social media site. The tool can be found on the site Focus on The User:

The companies behind the tool feel Google’s hasn’t focused on what’s best for its users with Search Plus Your World. They have a good point. But the tool makes this point better than all the debates that have happened so far around Search Plus Your Word, because it shows what Google could have done to better serve searchers, if it had wanted to.

Here's another example: The Next Web (via Gizmodo) found that with the new search feature, people Googling themselve, instead of being directed to the slew of information about them on the web, they are directed to complete their Google+ profiles. The Next Web has more:

I was pretty surprised that the request from Google took up so much real-estate in the search results, but I suppose that the company is trying everything to get people to come back and continue to use the product. As you might remember, the company announced that Google+ has 90 million global users, with 60% active engagement. This would appear to be a tactic to increase those engagement numbers.

So, to provide users with what the creators of the tool consider more complete searches the Don't Be Evil "bookmarklet" was born. SlashGear describes that the bookmarklet currently works on a "per visit basis". Watch the trailer about the tool:

According to Focus on The User, the information found in its modified searches only use information already indexed and ranked by Google. Here are a few areas in Google searches that Focus on The User points out could be providing users with a more relevant experiences if the bookmarklet was used:

When you search for generic terms like "movies", "music", "photography", "programming", "cars", "cooking", "science"—or even companies like "twitter" or "google"—Google shows Google+ results at the top of the page, even if you don't have a Google+ account.

[...]

When you search for popular organizations and individuals like "The New York Times", "Martha Stewart" or "AT&T", Google always shows two large Google+ results underneath the first result, even if you don't have a Google+ account.

[...]

As you type names into the Google search box, Google often tries to autocomplete your query to a Google+ profile, even if you don't have a Google+ account. For instance, when you type "John Battelle", Google links to John's Google+ profile in the typeahead even though his Twitter profile is updated more often and is the first social result for his name on a "regular" Twitter search.

Search Engine Land reports that in an interview with Facebook about the tool, the company said it felt Google was using signals to build its own social network but that if Google wanted to begin including other social media sites in its searches, Facebook would not be opposed.