Most prominently, Twitter General Counsel Alex Macgillivray called the launch a “bad day for the Internet.” Though obviously his loyalties lie with Twitter, it’s a particularly notable charge given “Amac” was previously a lawyer for Google.

Bad day for the Internet. bit.ly/Am5bqz Having been there, I can imagine the dissension @Google to search being warped this way.

— Alex Macgillivray (@amac) January 10, 2012

Macgillivray linked to a blog post by John Battelle (who wrote the book “The Search” about Google) that said, “Ick. Remember when Google used to be a neutral player that crawled the Whole Dern Web? So sad to see that era pass.”

Elsewhere, pro-blogger-turned-VC MG Siegler waved the antitrust flag, while NYU law professor James Grimmelmann wrote, “Today is a good day to turn off Google+ and delete your Google Profile. I just did.”

Alexis Madrigal of the Atlantic added, “I just can’t help but wonder whether Google’s new social mission and the original Google mission will keep coming into conflict. And in the race to protect its flank from Facebook, Google will lose track of why we loved them in the first place.”

Google is now encouraging users to "upgrade to Google+"

When I asked Google yesterday about why it didn’t include services like Facebook and Google in search, Google Fellow Ben Gomes replied, “The key thing here is we only have access to content on Google. We’re open to other types of content, but in order to provide secure and consistent access, we can only provide what’s in Google, where we know the privacy settings and have the relevant graph and signals.”

As for the actual “Search plus Your World” features that Google promised today for English-speaking users of Google.com, they don’t seem to be available yet for many people. However, Google is already promoting the feature on its U.S. home page, and prompting people who click through to “Upgrade to Google+.” (Having a Google+ account isn’t required for the new personal search features, but obviously it enhances the experience.)

Asked for a timetable for the launch, a Google spokesperson said, “It started rolling out this morning and will roll out to everyone over the next couple days.” She did not give an estimate for how many users have the features so far.

Update: Twitter Complains About Google Giving Preference to Google+ Content

Thus, JustSpotted, the social media celebrity-tracking service, is launching a SXSW edition of its mobile Web app that helps users stalk tech A-listers by combining public records of what events they plan to attend (via sites like Plancast), live check-ins (from sites like Twitter) and user-contributed sightings (contributed directly to JustSpotted).

Tech A-listers might be a dubious distinction, but the site, which will be available starting later this afternoon, will be pre-loaded with them–the examples given are Guy Kawasaki, Mark Zuckerberg, Zappos’ Tony Hsieh, Vaynerchuk and SV Angel’s David Lee.

Users can also search for any name they choose, such as potential investors and super users they want using their new app.

SXSW has become more of a VIP experience, with secret parties and private back rooms. And though geek spring break is bigger than ever, the fact that all these people are crammed into one small downtown area gives hope for serendipity.

But when serendipity isn’t enough…

Those would be the Web publishers, large and small, that hand over some of their ad space to Google (GOOG), which generally fills it with its ubiquitous text ads. Kim Scott, who runs AdSense sales, would like those publishers to know that Google knows times are tough, and that it wants to help, and that it’s improving AdSense all the time, and that they should hang in there.

Nothing wrong with the note–it’s always good form to send customers a little pick-me-up. But since most publishers we know use AdSense as an ad solution of last resort–because they have extra space to sell, or because they have no way to sell space, period–it’s hard to imagine a missive like this will be very persuasive.

Here’s the note , courtesy of VentureBeat’s MG Siegler:

Dear Publisher,

We understand that the recent economic turmoil has created a lot of uncertainty in the lives of AdSense publishers. During these difficult times, we’re continuing to invest in innovations that improve publisher monetization and advertiser value in the content network.

We’re focusing on further developing our product offerings and boosting ad performance for publishers. We recently announced advancements in AdSense for search and experiments to make ads more effective. We’re bringing DoubleClick technologies to AdSense publishers, and we’ll continue to launch new products and features. We’re also continuing to improve our offerings for AdWords advertisers, making it easier for them to target the Google content network. Features for advertisers, such as the new display ad builder, are designed to improve ad performance on AdSense publisher sites.

We’ll keep driving technological progress, but our best asset will always be our publisher partners. The strength of AdSense lies in the value of the content you bring to users and the quality of the sites you bring to advertisers. Our success is tied to yours. We look forward to partnering with you for the long term, and remain dedicated to helping you succeed.

Sincerely,

Kim Scott
Director AdSense Online Sales & Operations

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043″