The train wreck next to a dumpster fire that is Twitter is getting worse and worse by the second. The latest gong show is this:
Google can’t display tweets and pages from Twitter in search results as effectively as it usually does because of changes at Twitter, according to a statement given to The Verge. “We’re aware that our ability to crawl Twitter.com has been limited, affecting our ability to display tweets and pages from the site in search results,” spokesperson Lara Levin said. “Websites have control over whether crawlers can access their content.”
Over the past few days, Twitter has made some major changes to the visibility of tweets on the site. On Friday, it started blocking unregistered users from being able to browse tweets, and on Saturday, it introduced “temporary” limits for the number of tweets people can read in a day. Given Levin’s statement, it appears the changes have had some effect on how Google crawls Twitter as well.
Now as the quote above says, this could be a result of Twitter limiting how many Tweets you can see. Which means that Google can’t crawl the site to get search results. Which also means that this could change when that limit on how many Tweets one can see is lifted as Elon Musk claims that this limit is temporary. Key word: Claims. Or it’s due to the fact that Elon doesn’t allow you to see Tweets unless you’re logged into Twitter. That too could change if this hurts Elon enough.
Now Google’s statement to The Verge was pretty clear. But that hasn’t stopped some from speculating that this is Google retaliating against Elon for not paying his Google Cloud bill. You can find out more about that here. But the thing is that I see no evidence that this is the case. Even though Google does have the power to “end” Twitter, I don’t see them going to the nuclear option just to make a point as that may create more issues for Google than it solves.
I will say this: Google drives traffic to Twitter. And any loss of traffic will make Twitter a less desirable destination for people. Not to mention advertisers. And seeing as Elon needs money to keep the lights on, he needs to do something about this ASAP. Given his track record to date, I’m not expecting him to pull this one out. But as always, I am free to be proven wrong. Though I suspect I won’t be.
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This entry was posted on July 4, 2023 at 8:33 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Tweets Aren’t Showing Up In Google Because Of Changes At Twitter
The train wreck next to a dumpster fire that is Twitter is getting worse and worse by the second. The latest gong show is this:
Google can’t display tweets and pages from Twitter in search results as effectively as it usually does because of changes at Twitter, according to a statement given to The Verge. “We’re aware that our ability to crawl Twitter.com has been limited, affecting our ability to display tweets and pages from the site in search results,” spokesperson Lara Levin said. “Websites have control over whether crawlers can access their content.”
Over the past few days, Twitter has made some major changes to the visibility of tweets on the site. On Friday, it started blocking unregistered users from being able to browse tweets, and on Saturday, it introduced “temporary” limits for the number of tweets people can read in a day. Given Levin’s statement, it appears the changes have had some effect on how Google crawls Twitter as well.
Now as the quote above says, this could be a result of Twitter limiting how many Tweets you can see. Which means that Google can’t crawl the site to get search results. Which also means that this could change when that limit on how many Tweets one can see is lifted as Elon Musk claims that this limit is temporary. Key word: Claims. Or it’s due to the fact that Elon doesn’t allow you to see Tweets unless you’re logged into Twitter. That too could change if this hurts Elon enough.
Now Google’s statement to The Verge was pretty clear. But that hasn’t stopped some from speculating that this is Google retaliating against Elon for not paying his Google Cloud bill. You can find out more about that here. But the thing is that I see no evidence that this is the case. Even though Google does have the power to “end” Twitter, I don’t see them going to the nuclear option just to make a point as that may create more issues for Google than it solves.
I will say this: Google drives traffic to Twitter. And any loss of traffic will make Twitter a less desirable destination for people. Not to mention advertisers. And seeing as Elon needs money to keep the lights on, he needs to do something about this ASAP. Given his track record to date, I’m not expecting him to pull this one out. But as always, I am free to be proven wrong. Though I suspect I won’t be.
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This entry was posted on July 4, 2023 at 8:33 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.