There has been speculation in those other threads that Google is now customizing AdWords ads based on search history. In another forum (DP), someone posted this information from Google:
I believe what you experienced is actually related to a recent change in our ad serving system and if you experience the issue again, I would suggest you use the ad preview page below....
Google responds to each search uniquely. For example, if you search for your ad multiple times on Google, our system might adapt the results in order to better relate to your needs. Therefore, the position of your ad is likely to change.
If you have trouble seeing your ad, we recommend searching for your ad using Google's ad preview page. This page shows how your ads and search results appear to most users on Google search results pages, without accruing extra impressions for your ads.
One thing to note is that this personalization isn't quite the same as the personalization for organic results. Yes, the ads that you click are saved in your search history if you're logged in to your Google account. But based on my testing, one of the important differences is that the personalization of ads is linked to your cookie rather than your account. This means that ads are personalized even if you're not logged in to your Google account.
There are two ways to see organic results without personalization: 1) log out of your Google account, or 2) add &pws=0 to the URL. But neither of these affects the ads...instead, the way to avoid personalization of the ads is to add &adtest=on to the URL, which will show you ads through the Ads Preview Tool. Even before this change, it was better for advertisers to use the Ads Preview Tool to view their ads, but now it's much more important to do so.
(A few days ago, AWA confirmed in another thread a bug in the Ads Preview Tool was customizing the results there also. But I believe that has since been fixed.)
How it will affect the searchers that we target remains to be seen, I guess. Google emphasizes focusing on the average position rather than the behavior for specific users. It would be nice if they actually communicated more information about this recent change, though.
[edited by: Rehan at 4:51 pm (utc) on June 23, 2007]
If it is a brand, they may be looking for a coupon. If it is a generic product, they may be looking to see what is out there. If it is news, it may be different perspectives. If it is an informational search, they may be looking for a variety of different sources and may never find something valuable if the results are filtered based on past behavior.
In the work world, the saying goes tell me how you'll measure me and I'll tell you how I'll perform. In the case of filtering search results, the assumptions of any statistics or algorithm and the search results that come up as a result of past behavior will probably influence future behavior and have the potential to shape opinions, thoughts, shopping habit, beliefs, behavior, and more.
Might it be better to have personalized stuff in a "My Google" search and then leave the rest of the search results alone for finding new information? In a market dominated by one company the consumer should know if they are being served up search results that are skewed from what is freely available in the marketplace.
Seems like it gets a little questionable when a 3rd party starts to filter the information you see when you search. Now if this was Ask.com, you might say great, cool new feature, don't like it go somewhere else and the same could be said for Google as well, except that searching on Google seems to be such a part of how so many people search without even thinking about using another engine that there is a big difference between Google and most any other engine.
I hate perzonalized results on organic and ads. They're stupid and useless.
They definitely change the ads if you are logged in, I have been noticing it for weeks. It's extremely annoying, especially because it's friggin impossible to log out of your google account without also getting logged out of gmail.I hate perzonalized results on organic and ads. They're stupid and useless.
Solution: Two browsers: Internet Explorer and Firefox - or, FireFox and Mozilla. Or whatever.
Keep one logged in to G all day long - use it to watch stats. Use the other one, not logged in, no G cookies, to do 'clean' searches or whatever. I do this all the time - problem solved.
It seems like the whole point of search is that a person is in fact searching for something because they don't know where to find it or what exactly they want to find.
This is not entirely accurate. We have Google tool bars on all of our computers and my lady always enters the info for a url in the TB search slot not in the url slot.
As often as I have explained to her the difference she reverts back to habit.
I am sure she in not alone. This would make personalized searches a benefit for her.
