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.

[Kelowna]

What about using search.aol.com -- would that give you raw results? I would think so.

[Hissingsid]

I have several browsers each set up differently I mainly use these for web site testing but they are also useful with regard to personalisation. One (Opera) is set to never receive cookies and has never had a Google account on it. Another Safari has cookies enabled, has no Google account on it and has personalisation and web history off. The results I get on these two browsers are different.

Normal web search from the browser produces a different query string. These two querys occur in Safari when searching Google.co.uk but are not in Opera - both browsers set up as described above.
source=hp
btnG=Google+Search

Anyone know what these control?

Cheers

Sid

[tedster]

From what I've seen, source=hp means "source=home page" - as opposed to a search made from the top of a results page. And btnG indicates a regular web search on Google. Change that parameter to btnI and you get an "I'm Feeling Lucky" result.

[Reno]

For webmasters it's no problem to play around with different browsers and settings, to see where we rank. But for the overwhelming majority of the public, they are launching the browser that came with their computer. I just finished reviewing a lot of stats for my sites and pretty consistently MS Windows is being used by 85-89% of my visitors, with IE in the 65% range (+/- 4%). I'd be more than a little surprised if any significant number of those people do anything to opt out of personalized search -- and Google knows that.

As Personalized Search becomes the norm, it seems to me somewhat of an academic exercise to see where we stand with fringe browsers (such as Opera), and with our web history deleted and/or our cookies burned. The fact is, most everyone else is using Win/IE out of the box, which means they're sucked in to PS whether they like it or not. The key will be to carefully monitor our stats in the coming months to see the total visitor count, which pages got the most views, and what keyword phrases brought them in. If that does not radically change from what we've had pre-PS, then perhaps the impact on the SERPs will not be so disastrous (the impact on privacy is another matter!); but if we noticeably drop, then we can pretty clearly point to PS as the culprit. I hope that somewhere down the road we'll re-visit this subject to see how it is playing out. For me, at this early point, I see no huge shift. But that's just me, and it is early...

.............................

[Hissingsid]

I don't like what I'm seeing personalisation doing. For example if you search for a product or service that you might buy and go to review or price comparison sites the next time you search for something you might buy that type of review or comparison site is given a boost. So if you have a site that sells stuff getting folks to your site is much more likely to be a two or three step process after Google. ie a lower percentage will find their way directly to your site.

I'm coming to the conclusion that:

1. A well written description that catches attention and draws users to your site is becoming even more important than before.

2. Off-line and on-line brand building are now much more important. ie if your brand name is in your URL and/or your description and people recognise it they will be more likely to follow the link from Google SERPS. It used to be that only the naive and egotistical put their brand name prominently in the description. If you have some brand awareness now might be the time for SEO savvy folks to consider this.

These things have always been important in many markets I just think that they will become ever more important as we try to out smart Google.

Cheers

Sid

[MrSavage]

I guess this is a double edged sword for some of us. Some of us make money on Adsense. Some of us make money on affilate programs. Would you be making that money without Google? Probably not. Well most definitely not! Therefore, the good is greater than the harm. If we are making money from their successful advertising, should we be so concerned about a moral compass? Honestly I don't know half of what goes on behind closed doors. I see this privacy/history much ado about nothing. I'm sure a lot of the complainers here do quite well on a monthly basis thanks to.....Google.

Lastly, the moral of this story really is, spend less time looking at where you rank. Why? It's becoming less meaningful isn't it? Check your stats instead. More people means everything is fine, no need to change. Loss of traffic? A drop in rankings (obviously) so it's time to invest in your bread and butter SEO techniques. What those are in today's internet? Good luck with that my friends.

Google isn't stupid. Their CEO said they have to be trusted. If they lose that trust, they become nothing. If they break societies trust, they will be yesterdays news in the blink of an eye. There is a lot of truth in that. Now, what if they could control the negative press releases from hitting the masses.....

[loudspeaker]

Would you be making that money without Google? Probably not. Well most definitely not! Therefore, the good is greater than the harm.

Not to get into political discussions, but by that logic things are just hunky-dory in Cuba: everything people get comes from the state and therefore, by definition, they would be worse off if there was no state. Makes sense. Gracias, Fidel and Raoul!

P.S. Notice the similarity between our plight and that of most Cubans: no choice, no competition, no escape. Take what you're given and shut up. Gotta love this system.

[Reno]

I see this privacy/history much ado about nothing. I'm sure a lot of the complainers here do quite well on a monthly basis thanks to.....Google.

We all have a relationship with Google, one that has been symbiotic from their entry on the world stage. I am grateful for that relationship and hope it will continue for a long time.

Their privacy violation is a separate issue that has nothing to do with the income end of things. We can still make that $$ and they can still be the number 1 search engine in the world without auto-opt-in personalized search.

Speaking for myself, I DON'T want them to crash & burn, thus my concern about their current decisions. If anything, their taking the auto-opt-in course is of greater danger to them then if they did the right thing and respected people's right of privacy. BUT, that personal data is as valuable as gold, so this strikes me as a decision being pushed by the accountants more than the engineers.

In fact, it's not an either/or situation -- "Either they make opt-in personalized search the default or they'll fail as a search engine" -- rather, they could make PS strictly permission based and in so doing, this issue would go away. But if they let the potential gold mine cloud their thinking, and if the public gets wise to it, then yes, it could all turn on them in a World Wide Minute.

...................

[MrSavage]

I've first read about this here. What's that saying? Draw your own conclusions. I think the problem here is we don't really know what's going on behind the scenes. Cookies are evil aren't they? Amazon keeps your cookie and modifies what you see on their homepage. Is that evil? Invasion of privacy? I think I'm caught in a space where I don't really know what this "personalized search" really means. Is it really this serious? Or is this bad because now I can't really check how my SEO is working out? Should I be mad because SEO has become more watered down because personal habits will influence what another person sees in Google? If this system sucks, they will dump it. I think we are quibbling over how this will affect our free traffic. And as Tedster says, "free" taffic is what we're talking about.

*takes a chill pill*

[gn_wendy]

"Cookies" are small amounts of data that are stored on your computer. They find their way to your browser via a Web server. They sound friendly and helpful because they are.

Without cookies we would not have online advertising - and with no online advertising we would not have any free content.

The issues with G' personalized search are very different from the issues with behavioral-targeted ads.