| 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.
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