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.

[Hissingsid]

tangor,

Thanks for that link. I love the "Unwanted Opinion >> Wikipedia".

If anyone here has been around since the founding fathers of Google took the momentous step of introducing ads into SERPS will recognise the uproar that we are now hearing. Despite the cries of "foul play" that rung out then Google persisted with its plans to monetize the best search engine and now very few complain about the principal of having ads in results. We complain about specifics of what having ads actually means. Even though they are reminded that what they did makes what was said before a massive lie they just continue with their fingers in their ears going "la la la la la, I can' hear you".

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they are doing exactly the same now about this issue.

Is anyone hosting a Google logo parody competition anywhere?

Cheers

Sid

[FranticFish]

Burger King was advertising "Have it your way" back in 1974

A poor analogy. If Burger King were Google here's how it would break down...

You : "I didn't ask for extra pickles and no ketchup!"
BK : "Ah, but last time you came in you asked if it were possible to have extra pickles and no ketchup."
You : "Yeah, that was for someone else. I hate pickles and love ketchup."
BK : "Oh."

(Repeat for next 10-15 visits, until they finally get the message or you go to McDonalds)

[oddsod]

tangor, excellent link, thanks!

[sim64]

Apologies if this has already been mentioned.

A tip for those who don't want personalized search effecting their searching is to mix up the case of the keyword you are searching for.

If *keyword* is giving you personalized search, try searching for *keYword* instead which will give you normal results.

Obviously never click on a listing when searching for *keYword" as this may start triggering personalization again.

[Jon_King]

Is there a list of all current Google cookie filenames in use?

[subhankar ray]

Web proxies can show some 'non-personalized' results..

[signor_john]

Web proxies can show some 'non-personalized' results..

Wouldn't it be simpler just to use another search engine?

Even if your objective is to check your rankings in non-personalized Google results, what's the point if Google intends to deliver personalized results to most users?

[loudspeaker]

FYI, here's Bruce Schneier's response [schneier.com] to Schmidt's infamous "shouldn't be doing it" statement:

The response (a re-posted version of what was written in 2006) made me think that if things like that needed to be explained to a CEO of one of the most powerful companies in the world, there's something terribly wrong with that CEO and the corporate culture of the company he heads.

Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance.

We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn them. Privacy is a basic human need.....
...
Too many wrongly characterize the debate as "security versus privacy." The real choice is liberty versus control.

[carguy84]

Even if your objective is to check your rankings in non-personalized Google results, what's the point if Google intends to deliver personalized results to most users?

We get it, you love Googlaid they can't do anything wrong. It must be nice working for such a perfect company that makes no mistakes.

I imagine that whether they're worse or better is in the eye of the beholder, but the concept behind personalized search certainly makes sense. The notion that a "one size fits all" search solution is practical on today's Web strikes me as being naive.

Actually personalized search makes very little sense and is a complete waste of resources right now.

Obviously, personalized search isn't going to make everyone happy (SEOs have good reason to resist it, for example), and finding the sweet spot between maximum personalization and no personalization may take time. (Come to think of it, maybe Google should provide a personalization slider control that lets users choose that sweet spot themselves!)

I've been using Google since 2001 and am pretty sure I already had the slider working in my head when using Google for searches. It's possible to get to understand how and why certain results are returned for a query and how to structure your query to get the best results without Google THINKING they can provide better ones based on history. In fact I think they've already proven they're really bad at. I have far more confidence in my being able to learn how to search affectively than Google's engineers think they can do it for me. I've invested a lot of time in Google and now they are crapping on all of us.

[Propools]

I Tivo'd this and haven't had a chance to watch all of it. There were some good speakers on the roundtable. It's funny the FTC is having this discussion and now we're all talking about it but from a slightly different perspective.

[ftc.gov ]

Videos can be found here:
[htc-01.media.globix.net ]