Google candidly points out pluses and minuses of new system

There’s something definitely unusual about Google’s launch of “Web History,” its new name for its personalised search feature, by default across its user base.
 

“Essentially, by monitoring what you click on in their results, Google can learn what sites you like and give them a ranking boost in your search results. This adds a further dimension to how Google ranks sites and pages, which had historically focussed largely on analysing on-page relevancy and third party links pointing into a site,” the company says.
 

But Google has been straight forward in pointing out its advantages and disadvantages.
 

“For example in the case of the enterprise, new entrants online will find it more difficult to break into Google page 1 results if the sites a user has visited before have been given a preferential boost,” the site says.
 

“On the other hand, for those firms that customers like, Google’s ‘Web History’ will enhance their ability to cross-sell new products far more effectively.”
 

Some advantages:

• Google’s results will contain more of what users like. It will be tailored to fit in with how you typically interact online. As such a searcher should find what they are looking for faster and be more satisfied with the results.

• This opens up the future possibility for sites to receive a boost in a searcher’s results if their friends like a site. Whilst this isn’t happening right now, this would be entirely possible and make search ‘social’ for the first time.

• It will allow companies which consumers really like to cross-sell their new products far more effectively as they will appear higher up for searches the consumer makes for things that they weren’t aware the firm offered, according to Google.
 

Disadvantages:

• This might restrict the breadth of sites that are delivered to the users, leading searchers to only see sources of information that they typically agree with, which deals with cognitive dissonance in a detrimental way for society at large.
 

• Small businesses that aren’t as well known as the bigger brands won’t be clicked on as much and won’t then get the opportunity to appear in results for future searches

• New entrants into a market would find it more difficult to break into most Page 1 results if sites the user has visited before have been given a preferential boost

• Many will have privacy concerns if Google is collecting and using this much browsing information. This is an opt-out however, which should go at least some way to alleviating some concerns.

By David Wilkening