Personalized Search Now Default

SEO and Privacy forever changed

[incrediBILL]

Google Blog [googleblog.blogspot.com]

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.

[Reno]

After all, surely the SE's are there primarily for the general public, not for us webmasters to promote our sites, a fact that appears to be bypassing a number of people here

Your point is well taken but I hasten to add that it's not "either/or" -- the fact is, Google has many constituencies. Yes, the general surfing public may be the primary, but if Google were to ignore the secondaries it would be at their peril, and I can't believe they are that oblivious. Inevitably the concern about privacy will reach deep into many quarters -- including the general public AND the authorities in various countries -- so it's to G's benefit to be able to say "we give people an easy way to do a search which is free of any tracking". Or as the old saying goes, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

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[signor_john]

1. How will new sites ever make it ?

Personalized search doesn't mean new sites (or sites unfamiliar to the searcher) will be rendered invisible in the SERPs.

2. How would one exploit this in there favor?

Create sites that are good enough to attract repeat visitors.

[kd454]

signor john,

My sites are in areas that get most of there traffic from new visitors. People only need this information for certain periods of there life, then the event is over and they have no reason to return. I do have very low bounce rates, not sure if that will help or not.

I am guessing bounce rate would be a factor?

This is sounding somewhat like gorg is going to be somewhat of automated social booking site with "other" search results under the bookmarked slots? Am I off base?

I think the automated personalized results will confuse the average user, they will be like "why does this result keep coming up, when I am not looking for this?".

[willybfriendly]

This goes far beyond organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible...

[nickreynolds]

So in a nutshell if I've understood this, Googzilla are saying if I search for Blue Widgets and my neighbour does too, we're likely to get different results, whereas before we got substantially the same results
So, for me a few thoughts arise:

1. More website owners going to adwords, because they find their rock solid top 3 search position isn't rock solid any more.
2. Less accountability for firms offering SEO. People will still want their site highly ranked, they just won't get a reliable indication if it is. Fear of losing out will still make people pay for seo, they just won't be able to evaluate if they're getting value for money (other than by analysing traffic data I suppose)
3. Harder for webmasters to evaluate truly how well their own sites are doing. At the moment if I see a drop in traffic, I can just search and see where I am in serps - if I've dropped position, then I can easily see why traffic has dropped.
4. Google needs to treat people as adults. Let people search intentionally for what they want and not give them what you think they want.
5. The BIG question - how different will my neighbours results be from mine - just a few minor differences or completely different?

[physics]

All other points aside, a quick question:
Does the CustomizeGoogle Firefox extension guarantee you'll see the 'non-personalized' SERPs when you enable the
Privacy > Anonymize the Google Cookie UID
option?

[Import Export]

Almost every post here wreaks of 'entitlement' and 'fear of change'. It's ironic because that's at odds with the spirit of the internet.

There's a global trend on the web and the trade off is functionality in exchange for less privacy. Look around. This trend isn't going away and if you think everyone feels like you just ask some young people (the future) at a university or high school how they feel.

More change = more opportunity. Innovate or become irrelevant.

[Reno]

More change = more opportunity.

More change = different opportunity ... whether it's better or worse, only time will tell.

and the trade off is functionality in exchange for less privacy

To me, clearly worse. But then again, in the novel "1984" George Orwell thought that universal surveillance and loss of privacy would be imposed upon the populace by a dictatorial Big Brother -- he never would have predicted that the citizenry would embrace it with open arms. Look how quickly people in urban areas have accepted a camera on every corner -- don't think that has gone unnoticed in the head offices of the multinationals.

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[Leosghost]

You think reduction in choice ( having Gorg decide what it thinks you want )..and only choosing from it's own properties or partner shopping sites in the top 10 choices they give you ..

is "functionality" ..

then you really don't understand the word.

And as for asking the young..most of them are the result of years of advertising and dumb down media influence to the point where they are now market fodder morons who believe that quality of life is measured by how many fashionable brands one owns and how their hair looks in their reflection in their iphone ..and how many videos they can get of themselves doing anything onto youtube ..of what use to civilisation would their replies be ?

And if you asked such a question in most universities or high schools ..you'd have to use damn short words ..or they wouldn't understand the question ..and you'd have to strip out the near 25% of "like " and "you know" and text speak from their replies before you could understand the answers ..

Which would in most cases boil down to "whatever" and that's from the ones who you could convince to take the iplayer buds out to listen to the question anyway ..

[whitenight]

dictatorial Big Brother -- he never would have predicted that the citizenry would embrace it with open arms. Look how quickly people in urban areas have accepted a camera on every corner -- don't think that has gone unnoticed in the head offices of the multinationals.

Famous prophetic Star Wars quote:

"So this is how liberty dies -- to thunderous applause."

Or perhaps. more aptly it should be,

"So this is how liberty dies -- with a shrug and the murmuring of 'What can we do about it? It's the way of the world'"