The Twitter upheaval has affected everyone from end users to advertisers and brands. It will be interesting to see where the latter group lands, but Google — via its Search Liaison account — now has an official presence on Mastodon.

@[email protected] joined the main server on November 4 and has so far tweeted three times. Today’s post, which was cross-posted, about a “new guide to Google Search ranking systems to make it easier for creators and others to learn about our more notable systems” caught our attention. Meanwhile, mastodon.social/@searchliaison even makes an appearance on Google’s @searchliaison Twitter account.

This looks to be the only Google presence on the decentralized social network today. Google’s Liaison accounts are markedly different from its other social channels, which are decidedly more consumer facing. 

As such, it’s more likely that various developer accounts — @AndroidDev and @googledevs — will join Mastodon before @Android, @GoogleChrome, or @Google. Meanwhile, the latter accounts have other social media presences (e.g., Instagram) and probably don’t have to switch over in the near term.

That said, Google’s Instagram is used much less often to share news compared to Twitter. Dev-focused accounts might be better suited for the Mastodon audience anyways. 

Meanwhile, YouTube has given its nuanced thoughts on the matter, especially when it seemed Twitter was going to break on Thursday evening:

• Comment: Google (through YouTube) might as well build a Twitter competitor
• Ex-Waze CEO trying to replicate early Twitter and social media vibes with ‘Post’
• Imagine if Google had bought Twitter: stability, Hangouts becoming DMs, and more