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.
Ronin .what happens whan there is more than one user on a machine and your teenage kid clicks I accept so that they can watch their mates latest upload to you tube ..and the kid forgets to tell you ..you're in ..for that session ..and the next ..and the next ..etc until you buy another machine ..unless you remove the cookies ..
This is not normal cookie tracking ..this is Gorg will know what you are doing and where you are going ..even when you are not searching ..even if the last search you did from their page was months ago ..they will be tracking where you went yesterday as long as they served you an ad or the webmaster used their analytic .
Precisely usedagain..Gorg has just knocked MS of the most evil in IT spot ..MS cant follow me or you on Linux or MAC or BSD ..GORG has now put it's spies everywhere ..on all operating sytems..
Google is EVIL ..and now they don't care that we can see it ..Because most people dont know enough IT to notice or understand enough to care ..
And Gorg can just delist your website if you try to tell anyone ..
As agent Smith said in Matrix "What are you going to say Mr Anderson ..who is going to hear you" ..Gorg decides whether you can be heard on the web ..and whether people even know you exist in many countries.
I think that the folks at Google have judged that the answer to those two questions is NO! There's no risk for them and only gain.
We are bleating for two reasons:
1. We understand the privacy issues and are appalled by what Google is doing.
2. We are miffed that Google is eroding what little control we have as site owners to engineer our sites to influence our ranking in SERPS.
Google is just a web site offering a service to users and in exchange those users accept advertising and a certain amount of manipulation of their actions. Google is clearly pushing at low risk boundaries to increase its income.
Hands up anyone who makes money from their web site who isn't willing to push low risk boundaries a little in order to make a bit more cash.
I don't like what Google is doing here. I hate it because they are invading my privacy and manipulating me as a user. I hate it because I don't understand what it will do to my online marketing and I don't know what to do about it. All of my competitors are in the same boat it's just I feel like I'm up near the front and am going to feel the full force when we hit the iceberg and they are so far back and thick they probably will not even notice until there's no room for them in the lifeboats.
Cheers
Sid
Rise evil google, Rise!
I have discussed about Google to others and only receive rejection. They only talk about the free stuff they do and I tell them about tracking personal informamtion and how beautiful-sad it is the free stuff compared to the treatment others receive where there is money involved (adwords and adsense). They just don't see it.
I think G first created a need for their services and then is slaving people from there. Google knows there are people who understands whats happening, but G takes advantage of the majorities who don't get it.
They only talk about the free stuff they do and I tell them about tracking personal informamtion and how beautiful-sad it is the free stuff compared to the treatment others receive where there is money involved (adwords and adsense). They just don't see it.
Same here. Had this weekend a discussion with a friend and pure consumer who does not know anything about the web (other than firing up Google to search for stuff). He is intelligent, though, and understood what I was saying.
But he concluded that he does not bother: "But how does it affect me as user? Either I get what I am looking for, or I don't, in which case I go to another search engine. But what could I use instead of Google?" (He had not heard about Bing until then.)
Sad. Sad. Sad.
2) For every search on a computer where Personalised Search is activated as the default, there needs to be a button, as Reno suggests, which states: "No Personalised Search this time, please"
That isn't likely to be practical for people who are searching via toolbars or the Chrome address field, but it might be a nice addition to the Google Search home page.
ADDENDUM:
I'd like to see Google offer a "Search Preferences" link on the Google Search home page and every SERP. It would take the user to an options page that might ask a handful of questions like:
1) Would you like Google to provide search results based on your personal search history?
[ ] Yes [ ] No
2) Do you prefer results in specific languages?
[ ] Yes No [ ]
If "yes," choose the languages below:
[list of languages]
3) When you're searching with Google, are you mainly interested in:
[ ] Information [ ] Shopping [ ] Both equally
4) What kinds of results would you like to see on your Google Search Results pages:
[ ] General Web Search
[ ] News
[ ] Video
[ ] Images
[ ] Maps
[ ] Social-networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
Google could use a cookie to store the user's preferences and display a "Would you like to update your search preferences?" message on Google.tld and Google SERPs every three months or so.
IMHO, personalization is likely to be most satisfying when it offers users more control over what kinds of search results they see--not just through a real-time "advanced search" dialogue, but through "sticky" user-settable options.
[edited by: signor_john at 2:51 pm (utc) on Dec. 7, 2009]
It's bad enough Google knows what you are doing when you're sitting at your office or home computer.
Via mobile handsets Google will have time, date and place of where you were and what you were doing if you ever do a Google search from your phone -- and if you log in, they can aggregate a tremendous amount of info about you by tying mobile, desktop, user account, search history and cookie data.
1) the average person understands zero about IT
2) the average person understands zero about SEO
3) the average person hates SEO ( and thinks they know what it does ..how it works ..and why it is done ..they don't )
4) the average person thinks only big scummy capitalist and virus writers use SEO ..not that Mom and Pop sites or small sites might learn and do their own ..to try to be seen above the "shopping" dreck
5) the average person doesnt understand adwords or adsense
6) the average person doesnt understand cookies or beacons or tracking
7) the average person with a computor is as thick as two short planks
8) the average person doesnt care if they can still get their pron,P2P etc
9) the average person thinks that GORG is good and never manipulates it's own results
10) GORG has been watching them for years ..and knows items 1 to 9 to be true
Isn't this a bit too Big Brotherish? 1984 never happened, so why should this?
It is rather redolent of the old structuralist/phenomenologists debate in Political Sociology in the 1970's. If everything is relativized, then there is no reality outside of your own head (PC, lap-top, iPhone!) - obviously garbage! For the record, the structuralists won.
Cheer up - it's nearly Xmas!
B
I wrote about it here,
initially I thought it was upper lower case related, but after lots of testing concluded it was cookie related.
I think just deleting cookies from internet options doesn't clear the issue either, you have to dig deeper to find the google cookies.
[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 3:06 pm (utc) on Dec. 7, 2009]
[edit reason] no blog links please [/edit]
