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Yes, users would have to participate in a Q&A to help refine the process. And yes, there'd be privacy issues to sort out. But if AOL takes the lead on this AND the users are happy (results are truly more relevant and useful all around), will Yahoo or Google be far behind?
I would think that such a search operation would have to be on a subscriber-only basis, because they'd want 'em to pay for the storage and processing overhead...unless they offered it free and shared the data with eager third parties. I don't know about AOL's TOS; I wonder if they promise not to share the MyBestBets data with anyone, or make it opt-out.
I've been subscribing to Netflix for a year now, and I've received many great DVD recommendations as a result of my participation in rating films. They keep track of all my ratings (over 300 so far, and no, I haven't seen 300 films in the past year :) ). On the other hand, if I even suspected that Netflix was going to share any of my preference data with a third party, I'd stop immediately, maybe even cancel my subscription outright.
I suspect I'm more on the paranoid end of the trust continuum, however. AOL would be a good testing ground for applying Bayesian- and discrete-choice modeling to search results because my impression is their users tend to be more, uh, trusting.
...By collecting data from questionnaires and with users' permission, AOL 9.0 can deliver personalized listings on TV shows, movies, music and shopping queries. It also can learn what consumers like over time based on their ratings and recommendations on entertainment they prefer.
In the future, AOL could use the technology to alter search results and news to personal tastes, according to Steven Johnson, president of ChoiceStream, a developer of software that helps power AOL's service...
My guess is that a thin majority of people would prefer personalized search results than would not, i.e., 51% wouldn't mind forking over key demographic data in return for results which seemed more appropriate to them.
That's pure conjecture. It'll be very interesting to see how successful the ChoiceStream system is on AOL. Any early signs of success would impel "the rest of the majors" to undertake similar personalization development.
AskJeeves has just broadened a set of tools so you can personalize your experience by accessing the weather, zip codes, etc. A milder form of personalization.
With Longhorn Search looming in the horizon, it wouldn't surprise me if Personalization became the next buzz word, replacing "PPC."
