Comments on: Twitter Lays Down for Google

By: Paul Hancox

Paul Hancox — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:48:53 +0000

Interesting stuff… but I don’t know whether Google is in that much of a position to “threaten” Twitter. Let’s say Twitter disappeared tomorrow from the search engines, would that stop Twitter’s growth or popularity? I don’t think so.

In fact, I imagine Twitter suddenly disappearing would probably do more to publicize Twitter than anything else! Think of ALL the blogs and news sites that would talk about it.

By: Ignace Rodríguez / @micronauta

Ignace Rodríguez / @micronauta — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:59:40 +0000

So if the problem was spam, and spam accounts are not deactivated, why are not *all* links tagged with nofollow ? From an SEO standpoint it appears to me that it can be just as valuable to add links into the timeline.

Anyway, to me this problem highlights something that worries me about the so called “web 3.0″, the semantic web. Under that model, search engines and a whole new generation of agents would be able to better understand hypertext through the use of more specific inline tags. Now, if we are having all this trouble with just the nofollow, imagine what it could be like in that future context, with everybody competing by blackhatting on a word-by-word basis.

So it seems the way pagerank reacts to nofollow was just a short term solution, perhaps it did offer some spam protection, but Google will have to find more intelligent ways to filter out the noise.

By: Jim Summer

Jim Summer — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:56:33 +0000

Well, to date… Twitter is free. I understand the gist of the complaint but the old adage “you get what you pay for” comes to mind. I’m sure Twitter probably couldn’t care less about being a tool for SEO purposes. Having said that, I’m pretty sure that they DO want to play nice with Google. I wouldn’t necessarily lay blame on either Twitter or Google, rather, as the web evolves – previous methods must also evolve. It would appear that Google needs to evolve somewhat.

Maybe this will bring to light another avenue/opportunity to monetize Twitter. Twitter Premium… you pay, you can have your link back!

Thanks a lot, good read, good investigation!
– Jim Summer
– Jacksonville, FL
– Twitter: SEO_Web_Design

By: lauren

lauren — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:45:19 +0000

i think the real question is not “why cant we have our link juice”, but, what is googles motivation for this? they arent paid links, so it doesnt go against guidelines – wouldn’t it actually benefit all involved to ‘reward’ involved users? I mean, to get 1500 followers , google should take notice that the posts is so popular. the entire SE is based around delivering results people want – i mean, what could be more helpful than this to determine popularity?

By: Firebubble Design

Firebubble Design — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:33:58 +0000

I feel it is unfair of Google and Matt Cutts to have enforced this. Just another sign of them taking over the web. Either Twitters does what they say or they lose out in the SERP’s.
Its not right that the people who participate, like you Rae, who build a profile full of content and heaps of backlinks see no return from it.

By: theadvinci

theadvinci — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:10:45 +0000

@Tim: Nofollow never stopped comment spam, so I don’t think it will help Twitter if stopping spam was their main intention.

And if we consider that “traffic” (based on browser stats) is going to be the new linkjuice, maybe nofollow won’t matter that much anyway?

By: theadvinci

theadvinci — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:39:22 +0000

I think part of the reason for the nofollow is that Twitter wants to turn into a “black hole” (I’m not sure if this is the correct SEO term) like Wikipedia. Links go in, but they don’t come out. What for? To dominate the SERPS.

By: Rae Hoffman

Rae Hoffman — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:16:00 +0000

@Tim

I really didn’t expect anything else from Google. They’re not going to admit to any type of strong arming. And Twitter certainly isn’t going to expose them if they did.

By: Tim Staines

Tim Staines — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:33:08 +0000

Rae, I was wondering if you had a chance to read Matt's post from Friday. I think it sucks that the no follows are in place currently (especially for people with a healthy Twitter PR), but I can also see spam being a major problem and feel like we might see a positive end result come of this. Thanks for shining a light on it . . . I'm sure your attention to this issue and Matt's subsequent response will help influence Twitter to do the right thing here.

By: Rae Hoffman

Rae Hoffman — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:12:14 +0000

@bennyp I’d be lying if I said I read past the first paragraph of your last comment. You can keep attempting to make yourself seem coherent of the web, but I’m done reading and responding to it. Sorry.

@wheel agree, nofollow makes me paranoid. I’ve done a bit of internal nofollow at Sugarrae just to get some experience with it. But if the site isn’t already in an industry where “duh, there’s an SEO at the helm” (something uber competitive) then I think I’ll be keeping nofollow out of things.