Personalized Search Versus Personal Choice

Personalized search is a hot topic especially since Yahoo! and Microsoft have announced they are aggressively developing this service. Most likely, people will be leery of personalized search if they think that this is just be another way for companies to market to them. Search engine research has shown that there are typically two types of searchers: information seekers and buyers.

Information Seekers

If personalized search is to work for the information seekers, then instead of lots of targeted marketing, the personalized search experience had better offer targeted information that the person can use. A better information search experience without having to bypass a slew of commercial sites would appeal to the information seeker.

Buyers

What if you already have the information you need or don't want any information, but just want to make an online purchase? For buyers, information-only sites are something to be by-passed in the SERP's. If personalized search can deliver the products and services the buyer wants, and not just what the marketers want to push before them, then buyers may find some value in personalized search.

Personal Choice

Personalized search must involve personal choice if it is to succeed. The Big Brother and privacy issues need to be held to a minimum. Personalized search needs to be an option that can easily be turned on and off as desired. Personalized search should not be equated with limited choices. The person needs to feel that they are in control and not the search engines. They also need to see real personal value in using this service.

What if a person is sometimes an information seeker and other times a buyer, or in the matter of seconds they switch hats? How will personalized search accommodate this person? Will the person have to toggle back and forth between a couple of different user profiles or click on and off a checkbox to switch between these two different forms of search? These are questions the SE's will have to address in personalization.

Google

Google has a beta personalized search engine at: http://labs.google.com/personalized/profile. html that is pretty interesting to test. You're told to click on Health, then the General Health checkbox and search for "stanford." When searching for the word "bob" instead of "stanford" at the Minimum Personalize setting the first three results are "Bob the Builder," "Bob Marley" and "Bob Dylan". The rest of this page has no health related information on it as well. But, when the slider is pulled to Maximum Personalize, "Dr. Bob" has the first two positions followed the other results mentioned above. Its obvious Google has a ways to go in developing this.

Personal Privacy

If personalized search is to succeed, then personal privacy issues need to be addressed and concerns held to a minimum. Will personalized search involve searching your hard drive to see what your interests are? Will your interests be stored in a cookie on your computer? What happens when multiple users share a computer - will someone else get hit with all sorts of Preparation H advertisements because of the hemorrhoid treatment searches you wanted to keep private? And will children be affected by adult personalized searches?

These are all questions that the SE's need to address so that people do not feel that their privacy is being violated or put at risk. The more control and choice the user has over personalized search the more likely it has in succeeding for the search engines.

Copyright © 2004 SEO Resource

SEO Marketing Consultants

Kevin Kantola is the CEO of SEO Resource, a California search engine optimization company, and has published many articles over the past 20 years.

---

7 Ways to Promote Your Website Locally

Now that you've built your new website you can sit... Read More

Search Engine Submission- Don?t be a cheapskate!

Submitting your website to the main search engines should be... Read More

Culture and Website Localization

Culture and Website Localization With the rise... Read More

Time to Tell A Friend

The internet has the capacity, sometimes, to divorce not just... Read More

The Amazing Ways To Jump Start Your Sales and Attract Orders

Every business owner want to attract more orders and have... Read More

DMOZ Editors - Does Absolute Power Corrupt Absolutely?

DMOZ editors are supposed to be professionals in the category... Read More

Cross Promote Online For Maximum Profits

Cross promoting is when two or more businesses promote their... Read More

Learn How To Use These Six Explosive Marketing Techniques To Explode Your Website With Traffic

Learn How To Use These Six Explosive Marketing Techniques To... Read More

Top 7 Ways To Promote Your Website, NOW

We will start with the best, than make our way... Read More

10 Shocking Ways To Energize Your Sales

1. Start your own internet radio station. It could be... Read More

Wasters and Energy Suckers

Stop wasting your time and having your energy sucked dry!... Read More

How To Stop Your Site Disappearing Into The Void

Repetition is the key to getting your adverts and promotion... Read More

Increase Traffic to Your Website Free

When I first began attempting to make money on the... Read More

Whats The First Thing Your Prospects See When They Visit Your Website?

I just reviewed a new website and I'm in shock.... Read More

Internet Promotion: 10 Incredible, Intriguing Ways To Increase Your Profits

Are you making money from your website?Will you like to... Read More

The Top Ten Ways To Promote Your Site And Increase Traffic

Website promotion is a vital area in internet marketing that... Read More

Developing a Profitable Web Business Concept

The first step to starting a profitable online business of... Read More

A Novel Free-For-All Idea

Almost anyone who has tried submitting to free-for-all sites will... Read More

Streamline Your Training Costs with Streaming Media

Streaming Media?now a well accepted Internet technology. Yet streaming is... Read More

Searches and Summaries

The Web is constantly growing and changing. The key issue... Read More

The High-Impact Viral Marketing Strategies

Viral Marketing is allowing people to giveaway and use your... Read More

1 Seldom Discussed Method Of Web Promotion

So you've made the perfect web site (in your eyes... Read More

Rich Media - Exploring New Territory

Until recently, audio, video, Flash, and static graphics were all... Read More

Criteria For Selecting Good Directories!

Directories are the best means for getting related links and... Read More

Signatures -- The Long and Short of It

What is the accepted standard for signatures? Who sets these... Read More

How to Get More Links to Your Websites and Improve Traffic

I feel the most effective way to get people to... Read More

Online Advertising: 10 Smart Ways To Increase The Perceived Value Of Your Product

If you have a website promoting any product or service,... Read More

Types of Keywords

Keyword can be classified into three categories :-Single word Keyword-Multiple... Read More

Ten Unobvious Ideas To Pull Visitors to Your Real Estate Agent Web Site

The number one key to getting business in the real... Read More

Create a Google Sitemap for Your Web Site

Google Sitemaps is a simple and fast way for your... Read More

Three Ways to Market Your Web Site Effectively

1. Tell people you have a siteThis might seem blindingly... Read More

Website Promotion ? Need Inspiration to Write Articles? Check Your Stats!

One of the best ways to promote a Website inexpensively... Read More

5 Successful Tips For Marketing Your Website

This could be the most amazing article to ever be... Read More