What is mechanism for personalisation

[Hissingsid]

I received an SEO newsletter this morning which suggests that "all the searches you run on Google are stored in your browser cookies".

They'd have to be massive cookies to actually store 180 days history. My assumption is that Google will set a cookie containing a key and the actual history will be stored on a server somewhere.

Am I wrong?

What is the mechanism?

How secure is all of this? If I am right and my history is stored on a server could the Chinese government hack in and discover that I'm learning to play the tin whistle?

Cheers

Sid

[tedster]

You're right that your searches are not literally stored "in your browser's cookie". The language Google [google.com] uses is "customized based on past search information linked to a cookie."

Here's my current understanding. There are currently two kinds of personalized results: logged in to your Google account, and logged out. The most basic cookie-[ersonalization happens when you are logged out. When you are logged in, then your account's web history gets tapped (via a different cookie).

The paradox I find is that it is easier to disable your logged-in web history, than to be logged out and turn off cookies - which trashes other Google Search settings. So when I'm logged in I can more easily get the non-personalized rankings.

You can also get non-personalized results by manually adding the string &pws=0 to the URL - yet another PITA.