Search engines want to make it as easy as possible for people to find what they are looking for. The success of their business relies on efficient search results. Google are making search results more personalised in order to achieve these ends.

For some time Google have provided those with Google Mail accounts with personalised search facilities as long as they had the web History feature turned on. The basis of this is that when you instigate a search and find what you are looking for Google ‘learns’ from that information and provides you with better search results next time. For example if you are looking for a particular book and you end up buying on ebay Google will include that high up on your search list next time you are looking for a book.

Google’s aim is to provide the most ‘useful and relevant information on the internet.’ In the Google blog they explain how this works:

The new personalisation facilities allow those who are not signed into a Google account to be part of this useful facility. A user’s search behaviour is linked to an anonymous cookie which holds information for up to 180 days.

How can you find out about personalisation?
If you have the personalisation feature you can click on the ‘view customisation’ link found on the top right hand side of the search page. If you do not have an account and you cannot see this link then you do not have this feature available to you yet.

Can you turn personalisation off?
Yes, of course Google allows this feature to be turned off. Many consumers will not even realise that the feature is running in the background which brings up the issue of confidentiality which has been in the public domain for such a long time.

If you are logged in you can turn off the personalisation by turning off your web history. If you are not logged in then you can do one of two things: delete your cookies or disable your customisations via the web history link.

When personalisation is not a good idea?

• If you are looking for ‘fresh’ information or ideas
• If you are tracking search results as part of a marketing campaign or researching a business area
• If the idea of being ‘tracked’ online does not appeal to you
• If you have many people using the same computer then personalised search results will not be useful

Tags: personalised search, Search Engines, search results

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 9th, 2010 at 5:18 pm and is filed under Google, Search Engines, Search Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.