30 replies to this topic

[Randy]

Sure burnseo.

Let's say you and I conduct the exact same search at the exact same time on the exact same search engine. Let's say for instance that we're both located in the Chicago, IL USA and we both search for the phrase Red Lederhosen. Normally one would expect the two of us would see exactly the same or very, very similar sites about returned by the search engine.

With personalization though the search engines start tracking and collecting information about each user. They'll keep track of what you search for and what types of sites you click on. After a time they can start to guess what type of sites you're most likely looking for.

To carry this back to our example, let's say the Personalization Profile the search engine has built up for you shows them that you do a lot of research on the web, so they might be more likely to give you a list of Informational links regarding Red Lederhosen, giving e-commerce sites that sell Red Lederhosen less chance to show up at the top of your searches.

My Personalization Profile on the other hand might tell the engine I'm looking to buy stuff because in the past I've searched for stuff and gone on to select e-commerce sites a lot. Who knows, they may have even seen me going to sites that are obviously overseas, effectively pegging as an Importer of fine goods. So in my case they might give me a couple of good informational links, but they'll probably also give me some sites that sell Red Lederhosen. Correctly guessing that I'm looking for a supplier of good quality, real goat hide Lederhosen that are Red in color. Heck, since they've seen me looking at overseas sites previously the engine may be more apt to give me links to Lederhosen manufacturers from Germany or Austria.

That's personalization in a nutshell. It's just the search engines collecting a little data about each users habits, likes and dislikes, then trying to show each user more of the things they'd like whenever a user conducts a search.