Google has just failed an epic test of its mission. Great companies fail when they depart from their core values… when the pressures of competition and retaining market leadership cause a compromise of the very values that put the company into the stratosphere.

Search Plus Your World (SPYW) is the product that marks the turning point. (full story on Larry Page’s polarizing demands here)

From the dawn of the consumer Internet search engine in the early 1990′s, a core belief is that a search engine must remain objective and comprehensive. For those who make decisions on how search engines work, these ideals have been held up with near-religious conviction. They are the necessary condition for us trusting that we are getting a fair view of our topic.

What that means is that a set of search results should be the very best set of results for that query – regardless of the legal, business and social pressures on the company. It’s the classic tension between editorial purity and advertising. Between a great information company serving an audience and a self-serving company pushing an agenda. Between journalism and schlock.

By putting Google+ results into the core search results set, Google has compromised its objectivity and created a situation where it will never be able to offer comprehensiveness.

Objectivity compromise: Google has consistently failed at social networks (Buzz, Wave, Orkut to name a few) . G+ is its best shot at playing in this critical frontier, but it’s not in a strong competitive positon. It’s just not popular enough to be considered a critical source of social information (despite their astronomical numbers). But Google has a lot – if not everything – to gain by using its tremendous market power to catapult G+ to a position of meaning in the market. By integrating G+ results into the core search results page, it now becomes an important source not because it’s the best result, but because Google wants it to be successful. (ring a Microsoft/IE vs Netscape bell?)

Departure from comprehensiveness: To have the ultimate best results on a topic, you need to have the universe of possible results. If a source is left out, the value of the results is compromised. Search engines historically have fought for access to every possible source with the full strength of their technology -and- their legal staff. But Google’s social results are not only based on an also-ran social network, it is unlikely that Google will contain results from the two most critical social networks: Facebook and Twitter. Those networks’ futures aren’t reliant on Google’s awesome traffic power, so they can say “no” to providing their results. And they have. It’s possible that Google can use its formidable cash and deal-making machine to overcome this, but that doesn’t change the fact that Google stands compromised today.

From a strategic perspective this is a fascinating situation: Stay true to core values or bend to keep market power?

History gives us this answer.

Great companies stay true to their core values – if those values are strong enough, meaningful enough, there is hope of weathering a strategic storm. In his ups, downs and ultimate transformation of the computing world, Steve Jobs shows us that purity and dogged adherence to values can be both powerful and beautiful. That’s how great companies become and stay great. Not all values and vision can lead to the kind of success Apple has, but Google has proven that its vision is equally as powerful and transformational.

But due to this issue, Google’s future trajectory is set.

While Google’s protracted struggle with its position in social networks continues, there will be a new and increasing opportunity for a great company to pick up the objectivity and comprehensiveness mission. Should be interesting.