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.
Google does not require anyone to log on to provide personalized search for a simple reason: 99% of web users do not ever clean their cookies, so after say 2 or 3 weeks browsing the web Google will have their names, habits, interests, morning medicine, etc.
It's pretty simple really, the profiling technology available at Google(borrowed from law enforcement) allows them to create a precise persona for EACH visitor. If you have facebook or twitter they may even attach a photo and resume to your profile.
So personalized search whether you're logged in or not is the same, it's the best way forward right now and I think it'll take a little time but eventually all of you will just get used to it, adopt it, and we all can move forward creating a web everyone can use with great Google technology. Don't forget to buy your Android phone, those microphones and cameras are GOLD JERRY! Imagine how amazing the offerings will be once ads can be adapted to your voice and the context of your videos taken from your android phone!
Personalized is the way forward, your favorite teams, your favorite stuff right there on your search results!
After more than a decade, it is still amazing that there are folks out there who don't understand what SEO is. It means search engine optimization... whatever the search engine does. If Google personalizes its results, it has exactly zero impact on the desire/need/ability of webmasters to optimize their websites. They just have to do different things than they did before.
There is nothing natural about personalized search, and the incompetence with which Google (and Bing) tries to accomplish it means the results will suffer for it, but it is their search engine. They can crap on it as much as they want, and webmasters then respond by attempting to position themselves favorably in the results.
If you have facebook or twitter they may even attach a photo and resume to your profile. So personalized search whether you're logged in or not is the same, it's the best way forward right now and I think it'll take a little time but eventually all of you will just get used to it, adopt it, and we all can move forward creating a web everyone can use with great Google technology. Don't forget to buy your Android phone, those microphones and cameras are GOLD JERRY! Imagine how amazing the offerings will be once ads can be adapted to your voice and the context of your videos taken from your android phone!
Reading this I feel like I am playing a part in a Sci Fi movie...
Mayer grows defensive when the privacy issue is raised. “Because personalised search is cookie based, there is no personally identifiable information. All we know is that a search came from a certain computer – but nothing about the users’ identity.
The grand fallacy here, of course, is assuming that users and computers are surgically welded to each other.
Suppose you're a great Manchester United fan. If you search for Soccer, the number 1 result for you should be MU, not Arsenal. Right?
I'm not even convinced that's right, no - but even assuming it is, what if the person running the search is actually your cousin, staying for the weekend, who is an Arsenal fan?
particularly the younger people on the net.
eventually all of you will just get used to it, adopt it, and we all can move forward creating a web everyone can use with great Google technology.
Pulled two quotes out of the last few which interest me:
1. The kiddies have been massaged (indoctrinated... that takes about 10 years, just ask some movers and shakers of history) and,
2. What can we do? Must make a living, and please, sir can I have some more?
I've been running a test on 3 of 7 commercial sites since this thread began. Three have robots.txt google disallow. Too soon to tell if that makes a real diff, but can say that conversions have risen, though clicks are down. Expected as to juggernaut nothings to serious lookie-loos. I'm dang curious as to how this works out over the next month.
That said, I, personally, am a private browsing fellow. I teach privacy to my clients, family, and friends. I also do Obama-style begged community gifts of labor for no pay to schools, church groups, and civic entities. All have been exposed to "Bing it for a bingo!" TM
Said it before, say it again, then I quit: G's personalized search is Phorm in sheep's clothing. And that is for G's benefit, not mine, or yours, or even the sheep.
I'm not even convinced that's right, no - but even assuming it is, what if the person running the search is actually your cousin, staying for the weekend, who is an Arsenal fan?
Well then they will have to click on the number 2 listing (or wherever Arsenal are mentioned in the SERPs). Alternatively, if they have a Google account, then can log in and get their own personalised results.
What if a guy's wife does a search for Las Vegas strip rooms, and gets a lot of zebra club and spearmint rhino results?
Google has an absurd one-person, one-computer vision of the world based on the fact that they are all rich. In the real world, most humans don't want their web searches skewed toward the teenage male in the house.
most humans don't want their web searches skewed toward the teenage male in the house
this phrase should spear-head the switch-to-Bing campaign.
sums it all up in a neat little package.
