Opinions on Google Personalized Search?

[KSA]

This article was just published at SiteProNews:
http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2007/apr/2.html

It talks about Google and their personalized home page and how they will be tailoring someone's search results based on their prior search behavior.

There are also some predictions about the impact this will have on SEO.

Anyone have any feedback, comments or ideas?

[Calgary Agent]

I find personalized search results are an anoyance .... means I have to keep clearing my Google cookie ..... :P

[webmaster]

I think it applies more to techies than it does to our average consumer. That being said, it is probably a better thing for me, than it is for you because I actually sell to techies or wannabe realtor techies So they might know about personalized search, how many joe schmoe home buyers know about it though?

[KSA]

Jim - I agree!

Morgan - In part, here's what the article stated. That originally, you could do two things with Google:

• You could customize your Google Personalized Homepage for quick access to information of your choice (email messages, news headlines, etc.).
  
• You could get automatic personalization from your search history

Recently, Google started combining the above two options for users who sign up for services through their Google accounts. When you sign in, you get access to tailored results utilizing information from your search history and your Google home page. If you don't wish to see results based on your past searches, you simply sign out of your Google Account or turn the option to track your history off in your Account settings.

So, I'm wondering - if people do have a personalized Google Home Page, will they be smart enough to turn off the option to track history in their Account settings? Or, will they end up with personalized results and maybe not even know it??

[webmaster]

haha, good point - I guess if they do a good job selling their other services (Google Calendar, gmail etc) then you may have me on this one

[KSA]

Well, if they do a good job of selling their services, I hope you'll share with the rest of us your ideas on how to deal with these personalized results from an SEO standpoint...

And, it seems you're not too concerned yet, but do you think it's something that should be monitored?

[webmaster]

Why would I be concerned? The fact of the matter is, this helps everyone at REW: If users of Google are searching "area real estate" and like terms, and they are clicking back right away when they hit directories or lead aggregators like homegain because they wanted a high quality realtor site, then when they hit our sites, they will stay, Google will log that and next time we should come up higher don't you think?

[KSA]

Ah, excellent point. This could be a great thing to get more individual sites higher in the search results. I feel better.

[BrandonSternfield]

I see this being more like a Tivo, then weighted search results.

If you search for real estate, then say Houston real estate, when you search for condo it will put you to Houston condos.

At least that is if I understand it correctly.

It will only do this for the individual though to my knowledge. So let's say JoeSchmo@gmail.com has been searching for real estate, then Houston, then condos, he might start to find the same websites. But lets say JohnSmith@gmail.com puts in texas real estate, he won't get the same sites as Joe.

There is a weight going on, but only for the individual, not everyone as a whole.

This is still beneficial and maleficent too. This means people that find you will keep coming back, but this also means if someone does some searching and doesn't get you, then you revamp your seo to get more people, they still won't get you later on, they will get their old stuff which is personalized =/

This is about the time I would start singing the Doom Song, from the children's cartoon Invader Zim.