Trafigura, Twitter and Google
First time I’ve seen this, but search for ‘Trafigura‘ on Google right now brings up the Twitter search result for the #trafigura tag.
The reason isn’t that hard to divine – internal links on Twitter for the #keyword things are dofollowed, so the domain power of Twitter, allied to the prominence of this story and the whole QDF thing that seemingly obsesses Google at the moment means that Twitter is going to rank.
Does that make it a good result? No. Twitter’s stream of ‘content’ consists largely of retweeted references to external sites that are hidden by URL shorteners and stripped of any context. In a way it’s kind of like seeing a directory result up there. Does Twitter really tell you more than some of the sites below it in the rankings like The Times? I’d argue not.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 13, 2009 1345 days ago
[...] Trafigura, Twitter and Google, David Naylor [...]
Amelia Vargo 1345 days ago
The thing is though, that most people know the difference between Twitter and the Times – if they want to read a well researched article written by a journalist then they will click on the times link, and if they just want to know what everyone is saying about a subject then they will choose to visit twitter. Just because you (and me actually) think the times result would be more informative doesn’t mean everyone thinks like that…
paul carpenter 1345 days ago
http://www.itsafamilything.co.ukHi Amelia – true enough… if Twitter users actually had any space to add commentrary! I just think when something like this hits Twitter it just becomes mindless RTs and “we must do something about this!” kind of stuff.
I’m not against it – that’s the nature of the medium – but if you want to know what the Twitterverse is saying, surely you’d go to Twitter. If you were after proper context you’d start with Google and hope to see reliable sources.
Maybe we’re just too old for this shit
Reuben 1343 days ago
http://www.thirdestate.netAh yes but the point is that twitter is not merely a means to an end but a thing in itslef. When people click on the times they get to read about what is happening with trafigura. When people click on twitter not only to they get links to articles about trafigura but they get to see the whole twitter hubbub which is in itself a story
Paul Carpenter 1343 days ago
http://www.itsafamilything.co.ukMeh. When people click on Google they get links to articles about Trafigura. When they click on Twitter, they get fourteen links hidden behind URL shorteners and some guff… It could be the same story… different stories… spam… who knows what?
As for the “Twitter Hubbub” you’ve got 140 characters, 12 of them taken up by RT@*********, another 10 gone on bit.ly/***** and then some great insight like “tell everyone you know” or something equally enlightening.
I’m not dismissing Twitter as a means of communication – it’s just not a great source of information to find in Google’s SERPs