Smart and Personal Google
Published by Picturesque on Wednesday, March 31, 2004 at 1:39 PM.
Google is testing a search service that tries to learn about you and your habits in order to personalize your searches. You enter information about yourself, including hobbies, interests, etc. This information is stored in a cookie on your computer instead of on Google's server. (Of course if multiple people use the same login or no login on a computer, this messes things up a bit.)
This reminds me of Amazon trying to guess what books I like. Books I bought as a gift now affect future books that are shoved in my face. I have no interest in the book I bought nor the ones now showing in my Amazon visits. (Great for buying more gifts for the same person I suppose.) Hopefully Google's service is a bit smarter and ignores the infrequent, odd ball searches.
As we've been telling our customers, Google is profiling and is doing so for a reason. Here's proof of how that data can be used. Continue to watch who links to you and who you link to. Are they in a related category? Do they complement your site? Are people coming to your site interested in the other site? Avoid listing sites just because they are cute, fun or created by a friend. In the long run, this will harm your rankings. It's not about quantity; it's quality.
This reminds me of Amazon trying to guess what books I like. Books I bought as a gift now affect future books that are shoved in my face. I have no interest in the book I bought nor the ones now showing in my Amazon visits. (Great for buying more gifts for the same person I suppose.) Hopefully Google's service is a bit smarter and ignores the infrequent, odd ball searches.
As we've been telling our customers, Google is profiling and is doing so for a reason. Here's proof of how that data can be used. Continue to watch who links to you and who you link to. Are they in a related category? Do they complement your site? Are people coming to your site interested in the other site? Avoid listing sites just because they are cute, fun or created by a friend. In the long run, this will harm your rankings. It's not about quantity; it's quality.
