Yesterday, Google officially (beta-wise) removed the wraps on their venture into the personal search arena. Judging by early impressions, Google’s personal search service appears to be receiving a warm welcome.
Google Takes Search Personal
What are your thoughts concerning Google’s new personalized service? Do you use other personalized search services? As for the business model potential, do you see Google trying to monetize My Search History? Discuss this and other topics at WebProWorld.
With the beta launch of the My Search History feature, Google officially joins Yahoo’s MyYahooSearch, Ask’s MyJeeves service, Amazon.com’s A9.com, and Eurekster.com (among others) in offering personalized search features. These services are part of an effort to personalize the entire search process; something many search industry insiders have been anxiously awaiting.
While Google may have been late to the personalized search party, their arrival will probably be the one people remember most. Whenever Google offers something of this magnitude, the entire Internet industry takes notice. Perhaps we should file Google’s fashionably late arrival under the “Better Late Than Never” category, because the functionality of Google My Search History certainly makes them a welcome member.
Using My Search History
In order to use Google’s personalized search services, you must have an account, (any Google account will do, including Gmail, AdWords or AdSense). For those who do not have an account, Google provides a sign-up feature, allowing you to access the My Search History features. Once you have an active account, you can start experiencing Google’s personalized search service, which keeps track of ALL the searches you’ve conducted while signed in.
To access Google’s MSH, sign in using the links, which now appear in the upper right-hand corner of Google’s homepage (click for screenshot). Once you’ve signed in, every search you conduct will be recorded by Google and is accessible by clicking the My Search History link, which also resides in the upper right. The link takes you to a page (click for screenshot), detailing the searches you’ve conducted and what links you’ve clicked from your results.
Google’s personal search history also keeps track of searches that were done with no clicked results.
Not only does Google provide all of the above information, you can also use the MSH calendar feature to determine what days you most actively used Google search.
The motive behind their personalized search service is explained in Google’s blog:
How many times have you used Google to find an obscure funny website or fun facts about “The Wizard of Oz,” but then got distracted by other web pages and tasks? I know – me too. Wouldn’t it be great to find them again, and for that matter review all your Google searches over time? Which is exactly why we built My Search History.
Currently, the following browsers support MSH:
Privacy Matters
In case you are wondering, Google stores all of the information used in MSH. How Google uses this information is covered by their privacy policy and the privacy FAQ, which indicates information will not be disseminated to other parties, unless you request it to be. If privacy is indeed an issue for you, keep in mind that you can delete unwanted search entries from your personal history, keeping your search habits safe.
Not only that, but MSH users can pause the search history feature at anytime, which will cause Google to stop adding searches to your personal index. Users can also completely delete their MSH history by pressing the appropriate button.
Of course, Google’s collecting and storing of information like this plays into the hands of people like Daniel Brandt, who feel Google should not collect and store user information to begin with.
As for the business ramifications of Google’s new personal service, Andy Beal provides some insight as to where Google may be headed with MSH. In his post discussing further details about Google’s newest beta, Andy offers:
I speculated yesterday that the new service could end up either display AdWords ads or using the data to provide more info to AdWords advertisers. According to the [USAToday], that is not in their immediate plans…
Whatever their business model is for MSH, the fact that they now have a personalized service will only benefit Google users provided they give it a chance and use it.
For other points of view concerning Google’s My Search History, read these articles:
Google’s New My Search History’
Google Keeps Your Search History
Google Goes Portal With “My Search History”
Google Search History Foreshadows Google Tags
Details Emerge On Google’s My Search History
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest search news.
