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.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what this means for websites that use adwords as well as try their hand at seo? I.e. If someone has previously clicked on your advert then will your site appear higher in the natural results the next time they search?
I asked this already somewhere above, but:
1. Most of folks hanging around organic don't do AdWords
2. Everybody is too busy with privacy and other "big" stuff
P.S.
Unrelated:
Ah! getting close to 333, times 2, oh no, 666.
"The decline and fall of Google....look out people, here comes BING."
It's quite an opening that Google has created for its competition. Humans being human, they usually try to improve on near perfection and screw it up. LOL Now, Microsoft's Bing can do to Google what Apple has been doing to Windows. Maybe they ought to hire the same two guys for the upcoming TV commercials.
If I were running Bing, I would slam Google very hard immediately, in a most memorable way, and keep slamming.
Nuke some popcorn and sit back. This ought to be interesting.
If someone has previously clicked on your advert then will your site appear higher in the natural results the next time they search?
Why would it? First, Google claims that Adwords and search are strictly separated. Second, if there was a connection, why would they want to push you up in SERPs (improving your free traffic) when they KNOW that you are buying their ads (which they can moneize)?
At this time, it is about how personalized organic results may affect the brain of an average searcher and make him/her click more/less onto AdWords ads.
I've been already made monkey by seeing my sites way up high in first spots (until I started using secondary browser without being logged on).
In a similar way (I guess), an average user will be now seeing sites in upper positions that many will not.
How this affects AdWords is yet to be figured, if anything can be figured today. I mean... how do you figure this now...
If I were running Bing, I would slam Google very hard immediately, in a most memorable way, and keep slamming.
Not to give Microsoft any creative ideas, but if I were running Bing and had cash to promote it, I would do a simple attack ad: I would take the clip with Mr. Schmidt's exact quote, caption it ("Google's CEO") but otherwise leave almost unedited. Just one frame at the end... BING: we try/search harder.. and forget faster. Or something to that effect. Then buy millions of prime-time TV ad slots. Should be scary enough.
[edited by: loudspeaker at 7:51 am (utc) on Dec. 9, 2009]
my site doesn't even have a way to serve cookies
Just sign up for Google Analytics ;-)
Cheers
Sid
Just sign up for Google Analytics ;-)
LMAO...
Seriously, Sid, that's one of the funniest posts I've read.
Thanks.
I would go out on a limb, and say - not so much. Ignoring the privacy issues for a minute, G' has been using user behavior to influence the SERPs for some time.
Even though the user's (singular) SERPs may change dramatically in the next months users' (plural) SERPs may well remain similar, on a macro scale.
Think of your website as a product, say canned peaches. Up until now there was only one store selling all the (Google)world's goods. Now, everyone get's a local market optimizing goods for what customers are buying. This means some stores will put canned peaches in the back on the top shelf and other stores near the check-out counter. As a peach supplier, you will probably still sell as many peaches as before... that is unless everyone who buy's your peaches decide they don't like them.
Or am I being naïve here?
"...What we're doing today is expanding Personalized Search so that we can provide it to signed-out users as well. This addition enables us to customize search results for you based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in your browser..."Is Google Violating Minor's Privacy?
To review what info Google has tracked about you, you need to sign in to Google Web History, ( www.google.com/history/ ).
Yes, it's a catch 22 -- you need to give them more info so you can see what info they've already collected [about you], but, there's a problem if you are a minor, (under 18 in the US);
In Google's Universal Terms of Service, there is a section, (which most people under age 18 in the USA could not fully understand, and would probably not bother to read), it says:
2. Accepting the Terms2.1 In order to use the Services, you must first agree to the Terms. You may not use the Services if you do not accept the Terms.
2.2 You can accept the Terms by:
(A) clicking to accept or agree to the Terms, where this option is made available to you by Google in the user interface for any Service; or
(B) by actually using the Services. In this case, you understand and agree that Google will treat your use of the Services as acceptance of the Terms from that point onwards.
2.3 You may not use the Services and may not accept the Terms if (a) you are not of legal age to form a binding contract with Google, or (b) you are a person barred from receiving the Services under the laws of the United States or other countries including the country in which you are resident or from which you use the Services.
Personalized Search, (and the underlying stored 180 days worth of data), is "opt-out", and many times Google will be collecting this data from children.
So by either disallowing minors access so they can review or remove the information -- or by Google inadvertantly allowing access, in-effect entering into an agreement with minor(s), I think Google may need to put a "You must be 18 to use Google" notice on every page, search box and click-trackable ad, or make Personalized Search, Web History, and other forms of tracking opt-in.
Next Legal Issue: How Google is mean to puppies.
(Disclaimer: No puppies were harmed in the production of this forum post.)
