by Admin
by Jody Nimetz
by Jody Nimetz
http://www.enquiro.com
We've been saying it for months, "search is going to get personal". Personalization of search is not a new concept. As far back as November 2005, Google has been looking at ways to incorporate personalized search into the results they provide. Google has established a number of personalized search products including Google Search History where you can access and manage your search history from any computer. Personalized search is offered as an option whenever you sign up for a Google account, which you need to use AdWords, Gmail or other Google services. You can also add personalization using your manage account page. A few years ago, Google Labs saw the release of Google Personalized Search a service that reorders search results based on your history of past searches, giving more weight to topics that interest you. The inevitability of personalized search is upon us.
We've seen it with a number of products that the search engines have released in recent years. More recently, we've seen it with Google SERPs and Google's recent announcement about pushing more users to personalized search results. For some reason this has created quite a stir with bloggers in the online world. Personalized search or personalized search results should not come as a surprise to anyone. The search engines have been collecting data and have been monitoring user behavior fro quite some time now. For example, when users set up a personalized account at Yahoo or Google and remain logged into the account, you can bet that the engines are monitoring activity of the user. Remember all of the privacy concerns when Google Launched Gmail a few years ago? While some fear that the engines are invading users' privacy, they are not necessarily gathering this information to invade your privacy. Have you ever thought that they are using this data to provide a better user experience for you?
The Changing Face of Search
As I discussed previously on my initial piece on personalized search, in order to provide the most relevant results, the search engines need to provide a unique SERP to the user, not the traditional universal Search Engines Results Page that we are all accustomed to viewing. What this means is that the aesthetic look of a search engine results page will be undergoing a major metamorphosis in the near future. It already has for me. You see I use a Google customized home page that includes items such as blog feeds, links to my favorite sites, weather, stock market data, local movie data, quotes of the day and more. I have widgets added, online video clips and more. I expect that in the future when I go to Google or to ASK (or whatever search engine I elect to use) and perform a query for something, the results page that will be presented will be unlike the results we see now. Here's what I expect to see:
ASK is already changing the look of the traditional search pages with the release of their ASK X project. As a test, go to ASK X and perform a query for 'personalization'. What you will receive is a variety of results including images, related search queries, sponsored ads, dictionary listings, news listings, encyclopedia listings, organic results and more.
We shouldn't be afraid of personalized search, we should welcome it with open minds. Think of the opportunities. Personalized search means relevancy, and relevancy means satisfaction. Search is about finding the answer to something. It involves a quest for knowledge. It is human nature to seek answers, to seek knowledge. There are those who state that things happen for a reason and that the universe has a way of course correcting. Some call this fate, but like personalization of search I call it inevitability.
Jody Nimetz
Senior Organic Search Marketing Strategist
Search Engine Positioning by Searchengineposition
Enquiro Full Service Search Engine Marketing
SEO-Space Blog
Copyright 2007 - Enquiro Search Solutions.
Related link:
Search Engine Marketing gets Personal - Part One
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