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Personalized Search - All's Well or Orwell?
By Scott Buresh (c) 2007

You go to Google and enter your search term. Big Brother, the
totalitarian character from George Orwell's novel 1984, watches
with detached interest. You see, to Big Brother, you are only a
number - but he'd like to know as much about you as he can.
Knowing you allows Big Brother to do many things - both good and
evil.

Alright, enough of the "Big Brother" comparison - it's been
done many times before (and done many times better). However,
there is an important central point to be made about
personalized search. Google is now (and has been for some time)
collecting data on individual users, and they are assuming that
users will trust them with this data to "Do No Evil," as their
famous slogan goes. Only time will tell whether the trust is
well-placed, or if people are willing to trust search engines
with this type of data at all.

The basic principle behind personalized search is simple. When
you go to Google and type in a search query, Google stores the
data. As you return to the engine, a profile of your search
habits is built up over time. With this information, Google can
understand more about your interests and serve up more relevant
search results.

For instance, let's say that you have shown an interest in the
topic of sport fishing in your search queries, while your
neighbor has shown an interest in musical instruments in his
search queries. Over time, as these preferences are made clear
to the engine, your personalized search results for the term
"bass" will largely be comprised of results that cover the
fish while your neighbor's results for "bass" will be
comprised of results that primarily cover the musical
instrument.

At present, you need to have signed up for a Google service for
your results to be personalized. Such services include Gmail,
AdWords, Google Toolbar, and many others. By default, as long as
you are signed in to one of these programs, your personal search
data will be collected. The term "at present" is used because
Google certainly could implement personalized search on any user
of the engine, regardless of whether he or she has a Google
account. Google already places a cookie, or unique identifier,
on the machine of anyone who types in a search query on Google -
it would not be hard for them to use that information, rather
than the Google account, to collect individual user data and
personalize results. It is quite possible that Google is testing
the waters of personalized search with people who have opted in
to one of its services and will expand the system to all users
if there is limited uproar or government intervention.

For search engine optimization firms, the major shift brought
about by personalized search will be in how they report on
Google ranking data to clients. When collecting this data, they
will have to run from a "clean" machine - that is, one that
has no Google programs or cookies on it. The baseline results
that are reported to the client will essentially be a snapshot
of what a search engine user would see if they had no Google
software installed. The good news is that Google account holders
who have shown an interest in certain products and services will
likely have results more favorable to the client than the
baseline results indicate since personalized search assures that
their search histories will be reviewed and the results likely
skewed toward the client's industry. The bad news is that the
search engine optimization firm will be hard-pressed to
demonstrate this - not to mention that the results that the
client using a Google program has on its own personal machines
will almost certainly not match up with the results that the
firm is reporting (although the client machines should have
better results, for the same reasons cited above).

Some people find the practice of storing information for
personalized search purposes disturbing; others find the end
result to be useful (still others find themselves experiencing
an odd combination of both reactions). In defense of the
engines, it is not as if they are building a dossier on
individuals - again, you are only a number to them. However, the
potential for misuse of the data is fairly high.

There are many advertising firms out there already that go
through the cookies on your machine to figure out which ads will
have the best effect on you. If you've ever been on a website
and seen a banner ad that is directly related to something you
have been doing research on lately, it is most likely not a
coincidence. The ad platform simply browsed through the cookies
on your machine to find out what topic held your interest, and
dropped in a related ad once it determined what that topic was.
Search engines have been buying firms with this technology
lately; notable recent purchases include that of DoubleClick by
Google and aQuantive by Microsoft. There seems to be little
doubt that your search history will be combined with existing
ad-serving technology to deliver even more relevant ads. Whether
this constitutes misuse seems to be debatable - some people seem
to have no problem with it, while it makes many others fairly
uneasy.

Privacy issues that arise from personalized search are also a
big question. The EU recently announced that it is probing into
how long Google stores user information (this probe was
subsequently extended to include all search engines). AOL
recently committed a serious blunder when it released search
data from 500,000 of its users, and it was discovered that it
was fairly easy to identify many people by the search terms that
they use (anybody ever "ego surf" - that is, type your own
name into a search engine to see what comes up? If so, you
wouldn't be hard to spot). In addition, since the IP address of
the computer creating the query is also reportedly tracked, a
court order forcing the engine and the ISP (Internet Service
Provider) to provide specific search data on individuals is a
distinct possibility - the technology required to deliver upon
such a demand is already in use.

Unless the government intervenes, the question will probably be
decided by personal preference. As it becomes more common
knowledge that Google (and other engines) store this type of
data to enable personalized search, many users will take
measures to block its use.

Are the search engines that collect this data "Doing No Evil?"
The answer, I believe, will depend on each individual's
definition of evil. In the meantime, don't be surprised when
you type in a search query, and the engine seems to be reading
your mind. It isn't, really - it's merely parsing through your
memories.
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Scott Buresh is the founder and CEO of Medium Blue, which was 
recently named the number one  search engine optimization company 
(http://www.mediumblue.com/) in the world by PromotionWorld. 
Scott's articles have appeared in numerous publications, 
including ZDNet, WebProNews, MarketingProfs, DarwinMag, 
SiteProNews, SEO Today, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. He 
was also a contributor to Building Your Business with Google For 
Dummies (Wiley, 2004). Medium Blue is an Atlanta search engine 
optimization company with local and national clients, including 
Boston Scientific, Cirronet, and DS Waters. Download Medium 
Blue's latest exclusive whitepaper (http://www.mediumblue.com/
free-whitepaper.php), "Adding Search to Your Marketing Mix," for 
more insight.
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