Google Personalized Search And Different Search Results / Rankings

By Author: Mel Joelle
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Google now displays different search result pages personalized specific for each user based on cookies, Google account preferences, history, and other determining breadcrumbs. If you want to see if a specific search result page is personalized on your computer or a client's computer, here's what you do;

Add this code &pws=0 to the end of Google's search query. (Go to Google, type the search term, click search, on the search results page, add the code to the end of the URL)

We all know that different computers, using different ISPs, in different geographical locations, can get search results from different data centers. Or, if you are logged on to your Google Account, it might pull personalized search results. There has been a lot of talk and rumors regarding personalized search and how Google is planning a big change in Search. So what does all this mean?

Let's say that I like cars and I search for Porsche and Ferrari. I just happen to like nice cars and like to read about them. Also, I occasionally read business news, stock market, finance, and etc. What if there was a method, a technology to log, record, ...
... and identify my online behavior to cater to my personal needs in terms of marketing and advertisement. Now, multiply this by hundreds of millions of Internet users. Google has the potential to collect all this data, analyze it, and create certain search behaviors for each individual, and even guess or forecast what they would be interested in.

Yahoo and MSN have been doing this for a while now. If you log onto your yahoo mail or your hotmail account, you see advertisements. When my wife logs onto Yahoo mail, she sees advertisements for purses and fashion magazines. When I log on, I see ads for brokerage firms and car dealers. It's that simple. Now, imagine a technology where Google can show your search results specific to what might interest you based on your online history and behavior.

Now, imagine the SEO Industry and think of how it might deal with a problem like this. You are on the phone with a prospect, and you want to show him your accomplishments on Google. You ask him to type a competitive search term and look at the results. However, that same search term which shows up on page 1 of Google results for you, shows up on page 2 for him. How do you explain the situation? How do you redeem the trust that is based on results?

You can always use the method above, and tell the prospect to add the code at the end of Google Query URL, or you can tell them to clear their cookies and history. Getting the most targeted, relevant results for each specific user and give them what they are looking for is the desired goal, but at what expense?

Privacy is an issue in this circumstance. There will be a lot of debate regarding security and control of this information. Taking into consideration that 90% of Internet users do not know how to delete their cookies or clear their cache, it might be a big problem. Of course, you cannot forget revenues. If you are looking for a service or a product, which one will be displayed for you? Will that help you or would you be better off doing your own research? What about altered search results with the excuse of a personalized search?

Whatever happens, the user should always have the control. There's no limit to how complicated search technology can get, however, there's a limit where users might say, Enough. It's a thin line between relevance and privacy issues. Google has done a pretty
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