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Personalized search is on by default now. It is interesting to know that Google considers that to be the way forward, but I have my qualms about the subject. First of all let’s take a look at what the company thinks about the idea, and the main reasons they think personalized is better search.
Today we’re helping people get better search results by extending Personalized Search to signed-out users worldwide, and in more than forty languages. Now when you search using Google, we will be able to better provide you with the most relevant results possible. For example, since I always search for [recipes] and often click on results from epicurious.com, Google might rank epicurious.com higher on the results page the next time I look for recipes. Other times, when I’m looking for news about Cornell University’s sports teams, I search for [big red]. Because I frequently click on www.cornellbigred.com, Google might show me this result first, instead of the Big Red soda company or others.
Well I do like the suggestions in the search, but ask myself if I want the links that I click in the Google are good and updated ones? It is better to let the users choose what they want, or is it better to present them with the latest and best options? Considering the number of people who search web, and considering the number of people among them who are end users who don’t know what is going behind under the hood, personalized search sometimes seems to be a sneaky option. Lots of user data is being transferred without a people knowing about it.
What is still interesting is that Google doesn’t tell us “how much personal” is the personalized search in reality. God knows if my atheist instincts will be further cemented into my mind because I will start seeing quotes about rationality and ‘how atheists are more utilitarian’ articles all around my search results!!
Btw, for people reading this article, personalized search can be turned off.
So what are the implications that SEO industry might have to battle with? Well to start with, geo targeting will become a difficult job. Lots of times, it will be difficult for small SEO companies to display their results to their clients just because clients will see different results based on their search history. It might mean lots of nightmares for the SEO analysts.
..to be continued