Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
Today we're helping people get better search results by extending Personalized Search to signed-out users worldwide
That's a staggering statement meaning that every computer accessing Google is now being personalized, signed in or not, so any desktop, laptop or kiosk will start tracking everything everyone does and you won't be able to access the same search results from any two machines.
The possible impact to all is staggering.
The privacy issue is massive and unique to Google, JUST BECAUSE Google has their property spread all over the place, sometimes disguised as other brands and sometimes unknown to the user.
In that way, yes Google has definitely taken things to an unprecedented scale. I only touched on this aspect when I mentioned "vertical monopoly". One hidden brand that should probably be on that privacy concerns list is DoubleClick, and it has more of a stealth factor going for it than most. And what about business partners like AOL?
As another point of useful information - Google themselves does offer an Advertising Cookie Opt-out Plugin [google.com] for IE and Firefox.
Good point.
I agree that it sounds like this could greatly benefit the big sites. It's already so hard for niche sites to get in the door.
Perhaps it should work in the reverse - lowering the ranking of a site that you've visited already. After all, it had its turn to make an impression and get that bookmark from you.
Next version of Firefox and IE should have a "Google Neuter" tool, on by default.
I'm glad people are finally waking up. Gorg (LOL I finally got it as I typed it out, it's from star trek!) has always run an "evil" business. Perhaps not entirely intentionally, but their business model is based on the fraud that is Adwords (other search engines just as guilty).
BTW, I wonder if clicking on adword results will have an effect? In my market, Adwords are not used to get consumer clicks, but to tell your prospective business clients "look at us we spend lots on advertising." More important now to get your clients clicking on your results, so they get reminded of you.
You should be able to use the Google Adwords Preview tool to see your neutral region specific ranking.
I was making a one off search for Spanish language hosted forums as a result of a query on another board. A test search for my own site resulted in 2 Adsense ads for language courses and one for Spanish tourism. I think I will have to start blocking a few cookies.
Click your site, disable/clear your cookies, click your site with new cookie, etc. SEO2010.
I think they have just done it so that webmasters see their site at #1 all the time and stop trying to beat the algo.
This is a fascinating idea that needs exploring. I strongly feel there has been a profound change in the Google strategic and operational plan this year.
If SEO's, Webmasters, and site owners no longer have any influence over their rankings, they will no longer give it any attention, blog posts, tweets, or develop content for the Google algo. They will start to work with services and places that do offer them the opportunity to acquire traffic.
I believe the tipping point of Facebook was reached 2 years ago because the marketing crowd (yes, specifically the WebmasterWorld crowd) took to Facebook with an explosion of activity. I also believe that twitter would still be just another quirky chat site without the Marketing and Optimization Community (MOC) promoting it in late 2007 and early 2008.
If SEO's and site owners no longer can influence Google - or it no longer holds ROI on the time investment - then they will look elsewhere for traffic. I believe this is happening.
The amazing part here, is how complacent - almost encouraging - that Google has been in allowing this to happen. Their apathy and silence towards the Marketing Optimization Community in 2009 has shocked and angered me.
In the last year:
- Google has withdrawn support from major industry events.
- Google canceled their famous industry outreach and goodwill party, the Google Dance.
- Withdrawn almost entirely to the confines of the walled garden of Google servers. Gone are the days of GoogleGuy engaging the public on the public's sites.
Google's attention seems to be almost entirely on phones and other non-search services. They appear to have left the keys in the hands of the programers and left it to them to carry the load while they tinker with new and sexier services like mobile.
Why has Google abandoned the marketing optimization community? Do they believe:
- that adwords/search advertising has peaked and it is time to put it in to maintenance mode?
- that they have optimized revenue from all current major channels?
- that there is no longer ROI in marketing their search products?
- that their engine has done all it can do and there is no more need for investment in changes?
- that with their brand becoming 'Kleenex' that their next battle is at the OS level?
- Good it be, that they believe that their future is no longer search?
My Thoughts:
Google has maximized all they can do with advertising and search. They believe their future and next major battle is in Chrome, Android, and a Desktop cloud OS. They no longer have the resources and man power to dedicate to search. Thus, there is no need to perform maintenance on the community.
BT
..."If you want to know some ones intentions, look at their results. In the business world, your results are 100% your intention." -Warren Buffett.
Or the recent attempts by M$ TV Adds with bunch people talking gibberish are working its way thru the revenue?
And they have enouph channels that produce beacons that search is almost absolite?
How about a highly visible toggle right on the search page that saysPersonalized Results: ON - OFF
Then EVERY user would begin to get the message that Google is collecting and storing their data. Would Google consider that level of transparency too much for their taste? Do they want every user to know what's happening with their data?
I wonder if Goog's reason for introducing recently the fading-in style home page was to prevent the masses from easily noticing the "Web History" link.
If SEO's, Webmasters, and site owners no longer have any influence over their rankings, they will no longer give it any attention, blog posts, tweets, or develop content for the Google algo. They will start to work with services and places that do offer them the opportunity to acquire traffic.I believe the tipping point of Facebook was reached 2 years ago because the marketing crowd (yes, specifically the webmasterworld crowd) took to Facebook with an explosion of activity. I also believe that twitter would still be just another quirky chat site without the Marketing and Optimization Community (MOC) promoting it in late 2007 and early 2008.
If SEO's and site owners no longer can influence Google - or it no longer holds ROI on the time investment - then they will look elsewhere for traffic. I believe this is happening.
Very well said and I agree 100%.
This is going to be the undoing of the dominance Google has in search because they have now turned their backs on the very crowd that actually made them what they are.
If it were not for the webmaster crowd telling all their clients and friends just how great Google was when they first started out, they would have never reached the heights they have.
Now, as that community turns away from them and actually discourages people from using them for privacy and other reasons, their market share will fall.
The thing is, they just don’t seem to really care and with the change in their culture lately, it seems to be the final nail in the search efforts.
They have used the webmaster community over the years to achieve their goals and they now feel they don’t need them anymore so, they give all of us the big kiss off.
I could not help but laugh when Matt Cutts came out and said they were not rolling out caffeine until after the Holidays because they “didn’t want to stress webmasters” and goog fanboys actually believed it.
Google has had a good run and now that they have grown up and become the very thing they said they never would, they have moved on to other things and search is no longer their priority.
Bing needs to call them and thank them for the early Christmas present. And if Bing plays their cards right, they just might end up being the next dominate player in search for a while.
