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.
I really don't care what Google does with personalization. If they think this move will improve the results, then they have a right to make this move.
I absolutely agree that SEO professionals will get hurt by this - but that's a battle Google wants to fight anyway. A lot of folks on this forum will get hurt by this move because the art of SEO will be less effective.
I'm also on the fence with respect to privacy over the Internet. Let's face it, there are a lot of bad guys out there doing a lot of bad stuff because their privacy is protected. I'm sure there are even more "less harmful" dirty little secrets out there too.
The company I work for monitors every move we make over the Internet. Now that's big brother for you - but I didn't quit my job over it. In fact, I've yet to hear about someone quitting over that company's policy. They've fired people with dirty little secrets - maybe those folks should have quit...
I saw a 4% increase across the board yesterday, which is statistically insignificant. If anyone has seen a huge drop as a result of this change, I'm not finding any reports of it.
Google wants to give their searchers what they are looking for, so my goal is to offer what Google's searchers are looking for. It's about end-user experience, and that hasn't changed one bit.
Is traffic going up or down on the sites you manage?
Really?! Are you somehow justifying this by how much money you PERSONALLY are making. lol, No need to explain. It's worked so far on 99% of webmasters.
How much is your future freedom worth to you?
$1K/month?
$5K/Month?
$10k/month?
Let Gorg know, and they will surely pay you that amount (and have for the past 4 years) for your acquiescence to keep quiet.
This could be the tipping point that pushes serious privacy regulation and makes law makers start to scrutinize Google even further...........
This is just the start of what windbag Eric S was talking about when he saw the Google future controlling peoples thoughts for searches.
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.
Let's hope so. (see below)
but what can we do against a multibillion dollar business other than writing messages on forums, not much at least I think...
Ugh! More victim thinking.
"How in the world can we, the opinion makers, the ACTUAL COLLECTIVE internet with our TRUSTED OPINIONS from the BILLIONS of people who visit our sites to read what WE think, ever be able to do anything?!"
Wake up! PLEASE!
We, THE ACTUAL SITES WITH CONTENT AND PRODUCTS, created the Googenstien when we did NOTHING for the past 4 years even when any LOGICAL person saw this coming. (See below for advice)
This is just the beginning. Webmasters typically have a way to communicate with their (often main stream) users. They write blogs. They link to interesting and concerning stuff all the time. Looking at the reaction on this forum, this might be the final drop that was needed...
Thank you Zett for clearly laying out HOW THE INTERNET WORKS.
WE write the blogs that people read for quality information and opinions.
WE were the ones who recommended Gorg over Altavista, Ask, Yahoo, etc
WE are the ones threw Adwords on every page for the quick buck.
WE are ALSO the ones who have the POWER to change how the public views Gorg.
WE are the internet.
Always have been. Always will be. UNLESS
- you're willing to trade your long term power for 30 silver coin and your continued silence
- simply can't be bothered to see that if you continue to allow this to happen
YOU WILL HAVE NO INTERNET BUSINESS anyways in as little as 3-6 months from now.
A lot of folks on this forum will get hurt by this move because the art of SEO will be less effective.
Yes, but let's look at the bright side: Building pages and sites with intrinsic value will be more important than ever, and it will create opportunities for Web entrepreneurs who focus on content and on meeting the needs of their end users.
Take a hypothetical guy like Charlie, who has an affiliate site that offers cheap hotel rooms to business travelers with tiny expense accounts. (We'll call his site Charlies-flophouses-for-impoverished-business-travelers.com.) Charlie picks hotels carefully, writes informative descriptions, and offers a better user experience than other pure-play affiliates in his niche do. Soon, thanks to personalized search, he'll have a chance to be rewarded for his efforts, because satisfied users who repeatedly click on his listings in Google's SERPs will tend to see Charlie's listings more often than they see the listings of other hotel affiliates who focus on short-term SEO tactics instead of on content and the user experience. That's bad for the tacticians, but it's good for Charlie and the end user. (It's also good for Google, because satisfied users aren't likely to look for other search engines.)
Here's some more food for thought:
A given search may yield large numbers of equally relevant results (and in many cases, those results are of equal quality). Personalized search will let Google rank those results in a way that makes sense for me. Take reviews of digital widgets: I tend to like in-depth multipage reviews of the kind that I find at DWreview, Widgetlabs, Widgetingresource, and Megawidget. Another prospective widget buyer might prefer the shorter reviews at CNET or Amazon.com. If Google's personalized search can learn my preferences for long, in-depth reviews, I'll see more of the in-depth reviews that I want to read (and fewer of the short-and-sweet reviews that don't interest me) the next time I search on "Canikon NC-1 widget review" or "Panympus PO-2 widget review." That doesn't mean Google will serve up only reviews at DWreview, Widgetlabs, Widgetingresource, or Megawidget when I do a widget search; it just means Google will arrange its rankings in a way that makes sense for me.
On a Web that has billions of pages--including 52,900,000 results for the word "widget"--personalized search is becoming almost a necessity. What's more, the concept of a personalized user experience, where the software learns what to display by observing user behavior, isn't even new. Google personalized search is nothing but a search engine's version of what Microsoft has been doing with its Word menus for years. It's a product enhancement that, if done right, will delight users. (Note the qualifier: As I pointed out earlier, the devil is in the details.)
I for one will discontinue the use of all Google products; email all friends/associates and push alternates.
i simply love how you gloss over the fact, that the PUBLIC already DISSENTED to this form of cookie tracking not 3 years ago.
And Google PROMISED they would NEVER, EVER, EVER use this technique.
The market has ALREADY given their opinion on this tactic.
[edited by: tedster at 6:29 pm (utc) on Dec. 5, 2009]
will business to business searchers see more business type stuff rather than consumer stuff?
will kids see more kid oriented stuff?
I have yet to see this really operate where one can discern the observable differences (other than say searches on movies, restaurants, sports and the like).
Where do you see personalized search different than non personalized search, and can we see it in the stats anywhere yet?
Oh, and I LOVE the rant and rave stuff too!
The thread was about how as a site owner you could opt out of personalised search..but that just meant that your site subject wouldn't get added onto the hsitory of a visitor ..it does not mean that their history wont affect what they see when they arrive on your site in the spaces that you are running adsense in what the visitor sees is directly based upon their history ..and not your content ..and you have no way to know what they will see ..
When this became blindingly obvious ..ASA quit trying to change the subject or say how it would be good for you etc etc ( I suspect that Goog lawyers do tell their reps and PR staff not to lie on the record when off the ranch/plex ..or Google editable properties ) ..or maybe ASA just draws aline somewhere as to what (s)he will try to sell webmasters ...if so ..kudos :)
Concerns anyone running adsense ..even more so now ..
Lets say you have an adsense site about travel to Elbonia ..optimised perfectly ..and bringing you in 4 or 5 figures per month ..and the ads that GOOG served were always on target ..and life was good ..
Now with the new all seeing all inclusive searchers (c and by definition your vistors ) must opt out "featurette" from GORG ..
Wether you as an adsense site owner opt in or out ..
The visitor will hit your site ( maybe after having spent the last 30 minutes or 30 searches on an unrelated subject or subjects ..such as pick-up trucks or curry recipes ..or lap dancers ) ..and to them all your areas designed ( by you ) to show ads related ( via Gorg's adsense contextual algos ) to your subject matter ..
Will instead be showing in your space ..and next to your totally unrelated subject matter ads for pick-up trucks or curry ..or lap dancers..
Think you'll get many adsense clicks ? while said visitor is on your property ..but they'll sure eat through your bandwidth ..
And so will every other visitor who comes in with a Gorg cookie ..
The ads will no longer be remotely related to your subject ..except to maybe the one in a thousand vistors who knows how to kill cookies from Gorg ..
And if they clicked through to you from Gorg serps ..then they already are carrying the cookie ..and will get adsense relevant to their recent surfing ..but not to your site ..
So now where is your control over your site ..and it's content ..in your visitors browser history cookies and Gorgs algo that treads them ..thats where.
You may get more or less traffic ..but it wont be targetted to your site anymore ..and do you think that will make your earnings go up or down ..long term ..
Down is where ..
But Gorgs will go up as yours go down ..because they arent paying for the fancy picture frame into which the "random" ( from your point of view ads ) are landing ..you are paying for that ..How is your bandwidth bill now compared to your earnings from adsense ..
It wont stay that way ..
but then as I mentioned in another thread .
I think that their next move will be to announce that they will be moving into hosting ..and you can move your adsense sites to them ..you do the sites and the content real cheap at a price they will pay ..they provide the space ..
( or maybe small adsense site owners will have to close and get "highly paid freelance work" from "Demand Media" )
Either way Gorg and the big guys win ..
And you become their digital share cropper ..
The problem with the scenario
Charlie who builds a site that offers cheap hotel rooms to business travelers with tiny expense accounts will not be found in the beginning UNLESS he spends significant amounts on ADWORDS, In some ways that is fine for Charlie who has created the site to make money from future advertising, but how about the webmaster who creates a great informative site about saving dogs from the impound ( little advertising potential ) and because he does not have funding to spend large amounts on initial advertising on Google Adwords will never be found let alone become a preferred search result for dogs, but of course the big seller of dog food and the industry biggy will be found because he has a one liner that says think before you buy a dog or it could end up in the impound.
This could also have a major effect on many other sites, I like many others may use Wikipedia for some research, but I decide I want to visit Ebonia for the first time , up till now I have always taken my holidays in the US so have used Wiki, Tripadvisor or other very local specialist sites for my research , but never a site that specializes in Ebonia travel that happens to be based in Ebonia.
Under the new concept and only using G search I will never even realize that specialist site exists.
I do understand some of the reasoning behind G implementation and now also understand why Caffiene was so important ( I.E. sort results by standard algo and then add in personalization all in the flash of an eye ),
G is constantly fighting spammy sites that use the latest techniques to outwit the PHD's at G but as with all of G's changes over the last few years we see more and more innocent bystanders ( webmasters badly effected ) and G does not seem to worry about collateral damage seeing it as an acceptable result FOR THE GREATER GOOD.
