Google Personalized searches

[mervynj]

People,

[labs.google.com...]

And then on the SERPs see the slider!

This is unbelievable. I don't know what this means for:
1. SEOs
How do you optimize your keywords now - a different approach is required now....

2. Other search engines
This looks to me like some kind of customer lock-in (though a weak one, I agree). How would other SE react?

Very interesting developments today.

-Mervyn

[PeterD]

Do the referrer strings from a personalized search look any different from the standard G referrer strings?

[g1smd]

I expect they have labs.google.com in them :-)

Do a search, and look at what is in your URL bar just before you click any link to any site. Whatever is in your URL bar at that time is what is sent as the referrer.

[PeterD]

"Whatever is in your URL bar at that time is what is sent as the referrer." Anybody who's followed a link at WebmasterWorld knows this isn't always the case--there can be redirects. But seriously, I guess my fingers were working faster than my brain!

[Please Be Gentle]

Happy April Fool's Day everyone
As an avid proponent of personalization, I welcome Google's new personalization tool ( it is not how I would have chosen to do it, but that is another matter). Having selected a number of preferences and then playing with it, I have the following query: does it prioritize preferences and if there is a clash between preferences how can I skew the results in a given direction. As part of my preferences I have selected food and computers. If I enter a query such as apple, for instance, and I set the slider to maximum personalization, I don't get any results related to apple fruit in the top 10 or 20 results (I do recognize that Apple computers would be a popular choice, but because I explicitly stated that I was interested in food, I thought I would see it in the first two pages). How can I tell which of my preferences is being prioritized or how can I specify that I am interested in food for this query ( I know that I can use refiners such as ~fruit as I would with a normal search but I mean how can I use the personalization tool itself), or do I have to go into my profile, delete all preferences not related to food, run the query and re-enter my original preferences before running a new query?
Just wondering
With Best Regards
Please Be Gentle

[258cib]

Please Be makes some excellent points.

Bottom line, I see publishers of speciality web sites setting up preferences for their readers on Google search (perhaps paying Google to work with their team of subject matter experts) and then offer access to their readers.

The result could be: The Beatles web sites have their own Google search. So does Apple Records. And so does the American Fruit Grower. And so does Apple Computer.

Web publishers: Do you think this is worthwhile editorial to bring in readers?

Marketers: Will this increase your confidence in your AdSense targeting?

Users: Sound like a winner?

Google is trying to index the world. They can't do it alone. They need to give the world a handle to help them.

What Please Be implies is right on. This is too complex for the average bear. But, with a little help from the marketplace, it can work.

[Chndru]

I been extensively using this personalized search for days now. One thing that could be improved is comprehensiveness.

They have goldmine of info in blogger.com. Maybe they would include an option to spider my blog at blogger.com using Adsense Technology and gather my interest-specific keywords? I hope G thinks something along these lines. GG?

[Please Be Gentle]

258cib
What I actually meant is that if you have a lot of interests, they could cancel each other out and diminish the efficacy of the tool. I wanted to know if the tool could be manipulated to give more emphasis to one category on a per query basis. I am not sure how your specialized search groups would work , but I do believe that Google should offer a variety of personalization flavours (and maybe should make their modus operandi more transparent for the end user). With the slider, just as when you drill down through the topics in the Google Directory, for instance, you will still run into the many of the same problems - the user should be encouraged to think about what they want to achieve with the query and be helped to refine it accordingly.
Hope that clarifies what I meant
With Kindest Regards
PBG

[Please Be Gentle]

Hi all,
Happy Summer! When I tried to create a profile in personalized Search I encounter an error. I was able to do it weeks ago but now I see an error with an unclosed tag "<td align=center", does anyone else see this or is it okay where you are?
Kind Regards
PBG

[Please Be Gentle]

Now create profile works for me again.
Regards PBG