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.
Let's try to understand what is the goal of google with this new feature ?
The first one seem to get out of the search results the 98 % of websites on the internet that are not serious and useless.. ( that is a good idea ) because there is seriously a lot of trash out there...
The second that I don't like as much is done so that google makes even more money that it is already making.. from what I understand unless you are in the TOP 3 of google on the first page you are going be forced to advertise because you won't appear anymore. However isn't that already the case, if you have a website you probably already aware that unless you in are in the TOP 3 on a money making keyword , you won't make a single dime from your website and you won't see more than maybe 30 visitors a month...
So my guess is that google knows that 99 % of the websites that are listed in their system don't have any visitors so what they want to do is have 3 serious major players in each industry and forget about the rest... so to me it means that you have no other choice that be in the TOP 3 of google to make money...
I tend to agree with they way they think but my only concern is how can a small business make it in this world, when you have a small business you have hundreds of things to do, run your business, look for clients, do the marketing, learn the google algorithms etc... and I am worried that the way they think it going to help big business but hurt small businesses, why because big businesses have the money to pay teams of seo to work 24 / 7 for them and get in the TOP 3 of google, whereas a small business can but it is going to take them years if they have the patience to figure out what thousands of engineers work on everyday around the world ( especially if their business is in a competitive industry who can afford to make no money for years ;)
Question now : let's stay I want to start a watch making business tomorrow, if all the people that type watches on the internet all have personalized search results how can I make my website appear in their personalized search results ? what I don't understand how can a new website make it if google already selects the best for you ?
Joes User's SERP becomes a little stale. Ads are shiny new and now more compelling than they used to be.
On to the "privacy issue": Cookies are nothing new, and the ability to store data on searches from a specific location (such as an IP address) is nothing new. The only thing that's really new is delivering search results that reflect a searcher's preferences as expressed through past search behavior. That may be a concern to searchers who don't want their do-it-yourselfer wives to search on "paint stripper" and find a striptease-photo site featuring a girl named "Paint" at the top of the search results, or who are afraid that a visiting friend's Friday-night search for "parties" might yield the American Nazi Party in the #1 slot. This is a potentially sensitive issue that Google will have to deal with; as the expression goes, "the devil is in the details." But the notion that personalized search is a bigger threat to privacy than police video cameras, credit-reporting services, direct-marketing databases, or NSA packet sniffing is nonsense.
Who's really threatened by personalized search? SEOs, and those Web publishers and entrepreneurs whose businesses depend on SEO tactics. That's why we're seeing so much heated discussion in this thread: If Yoursite.com or Mysite.com is outranked by Wikipedia for "blue widgets" or by TripAdvisor for "Widgetville hotels" because users are happy with the results they get from Wikipedia or Tripadvisor, Bluewidgetsforsale.com or Cheapaffiliatehotelrooms.com potentially could lose organic search traffic and revenue.
If Yoursite.com is outranked by Wikipedia for "blue widgets"... because users are happy with the results they get from Wikipedia... could lose organic search traffic and revenue.
for some people, they are the only results that they ever see, so they're the ones that they use. the sites underneath might be loads better, but if personalised search keeps returning the site you used before, who will know?
it's a bit wierd, if you think about it. search engines are there to help you find stuff. but personalised search seems to be geared towards helping you find the stuff that you already know about.
what is the point of that? if you already use wikipedia, then that's where you'll go. you don't need a search engine to help you.
Who's really threatened by personalized search?
Everyone that wants privacy.
Sure, the data is being tracked anyway, but there's no action being taken on that data until this change occurs.
Previously this was an OPT-IN feature for only those signed-in to Google.
Now it's OPT-OUT globally, and if you're not signed in you need to know how to kill a cookie.
This could be the tipping point that pushes serious privacy regulation and makes law makers start to scrutinize Google even further.
[edited by: incrediBILL at 3:48 pm (utc) on Dec. 5, 2009]
This is actually good and the reason is, once people start to see the same results from the same websites for their searches, they are going to try some other search engine. Google is going to lose market share over this.
All those that drank the googleaid for years talking about how Google is so great and not evil, blah, blah just got a dose of reality.
As others have said, Google is not your friend and they don't give a darn about your business.
Tell your friends to stop using Google unless they want Google to own their lives. Stop using Google products and giving them your information for free.
Spread the word, Google is evil and they are only going to get worse.
for some people, they are the only results that they ever see, so they're the ones that they use. the sites underneath might be loads better, but if personalised search keeps returning the site you used before, who will know?
I don't think it's quite as simple as "You seem to like Wikipedia results, so we're always going to serve a Wikipedia result on your SERP even if you're searching for "blue widget dealers in Omaha."
It might mean that if you have a habit of choosing Wikipedia results for searches like "Springfield history," "Shelybville history," and "Widgetville history," you'll see a Wikipedia result in the #1 slot when you search on "Whatsitville history." But that isn't necessarily a bad thing--in fact, it may be a good thing--from Joe Searcher's point of view. He can use a familiar interface (Google's) to search for Wikipedia results, and as a bonus, he'll see non-Wikipedia results, too (which may be useful if the "Whatsitville history" page is non-existent, is skimpy, or is a stub).
Mind you, if enough Joe Searchers aren't happy with personalized search results, Google is likely to make changes to personalized search or phase it out entirely. That's what I meant by "The market will decide," as it did when Coca-Cola drinkers rejected "New Coke" en masse in 1985. Democracy isn't always perfect, but to those of us who grew up with the old Coca-Cola and said "No" to New Coke, the power of the marketplace can be a wonderful thing. :-)
127.0.0.1 ad.yieldmanager.com
127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 doubleclick.net
# and here is the drastic one(note to self: uncomment when searching for Bada_Bing)
#8.8.8.8 google.com
#8.8.4.4 www.google.com
Democracy isn't always perfect, but to those of us who grew up with the old Coca-Cola and said "No" to New Coke, the power of the marketplace can be a wonderful thing. :-)
For any normal business, that would be true. But this is Google. A building full of egotistical PHDs all thinking they know what is better for you and me and having the money to not care about what the market thinks.
They are going to ram this down peoples throat whether they like it or not and if they lose market share, I don't think they really care.
They already think the Internet could not exist without them.
