I’m going to make this short and sweet…

So many times in this forum we hear questions about how to get more traffic, better rankings in Google and so on…

Well Personalized Search is coming on strong and if you play your cards right, that could be the answer to many of the questions we hear and could have a huge impact on your website’s success…

so once again, thanks to David Harry, (forum member ‘The Gypsy’) we’re given the tools to make sure we're ready to take full advantage of Personalized Search

Here it is: The Ultimate Guide to Google Personalized Search

Read it, apply it, gain traffic and succeed….or go grab a beer, take a nap and call it a day- up to you

[ps. feel free to pass the guide around to anyone– it’s for everyone to learn ]

I can't stress enough tha people need to understand the implication for this going forward. As an example, I recently made a post that was discussing how the iGoogle Homepage was the fastest growing service - year of year as of November

With iGoogle (and Google computers, phones) on the rise, Google accounts and personalized search will be imporant.

...and if you think that is interesting, what if I told you there is currently plenty of evidence that the search engines are also looking at User Performance metrics in the scoring process for the regular index. For more on that see my other post relating to User Performance Metrics

This could decidely change how an SEO operates as well as how they qualify campaigns. We already have seen the need to check various data centers when geo-targeting, this new world means even more granular SERPs and potentially losing the ability to truly guage rankings on the larger scale.

Analytics will play a much stronger roll in judging the efficacy of an SEO program....

Have a look at the number one thing to watch for in SEM from a recent Top Rank Blog poll; 

Heavier Integration of User Data and Personalized Search in Standard Results

So I decided this guide is Mandatory Reading for those with an interest in Search Marketing. I encourage ALL members to have a read (except Charles of course whom is always onthe cutting edge... he he)

O kids... ya'll read upon this homework right?? O f course you did....

hmmm Maybe I should give a Pop-Quiz

Can you hear that heavy "thump, thump, thump?" That's George Orwell turning in his grave. I'm not done reading (the "Gypsy articles make me think too hard" factor is multiplied when it's more than merely an article), but the whole concept gives me a "that's cool/oh, Lord, what are we doing to ourselves" feeling. Gotta ask, this is merely business to you, Gyps?! It doesn't make you think, you just might want to step back, and consider other means of getting noticed, besides Google? After all this, should we be more worried about them taking over the Net, then mere media conglomerates?

I've noticed Google keeps trying to feed me local ads, but I rarely care if the site is local or not. Rather irratates me, much like big brother is watching me, but more like how dumb do they think I am? At least it won't always be about locale, which is good, since Philly is definitely not the hubbub of 95% of my searches. Still curious about how to personalize my sites, given that they are only partially locale oriented (hot beds of activity for my niche are the UK, Germany, south Pacific Rim, Australia, and North America -- excluding Mexico.) Then again, I've been trying to figure out which KW phrases/long-tails would get folks, who want to see sites like mine, to them for a while, anyway. Not much different really, except how all incompassing Google is becoming, and how much spying are we willing to accept for convenience?!

Kinda makes me step back, and remember that line from the last (third) Star Wars, except I might be seeing it earlier, "So this is how democracy ends -- with applause." Someday, will we just let Microsoft and Google take over educating everyone, while selling them all the "educational equipment?" I'm not a comspiracy theorist kinda person, but really enjoy my freedom. Many decisions since 9/11/01 have made me uncomfortable, Now it seems businesses are picking up on how most people feel -- "Screw freedom, we want comfort and convenience." Just scares me that I see no way around this, and will probably join in, even feeling uncomfortable with it.

When it comes down to it, quality and convenience is an important aspect of popularity, but often… it is reach/penetration that rues the day. Google has a TON of cash, they can afford to brand with the best of the big dogs. As long as they are the top dog then that is the way it shall be. I am not overly concerned with which mega-corp owns the search engine, merely to rank in the desired one.

This is nothing new as far as the Orwellian angle is concerned. Major corporations that are ubiquitous for a given brand name in an industry do tend to run the show. At some point there will undoubtedly be the calls for action such as there were with Microsoft, telecommunications industry, collusion in the oil game and so on and so on…. Google isn’t the face of evil exclusively for the conspiracy types out there.

I've noticed Google keeps trying to feed me local ads, but I rarely care if the site is local or not. Rather irratates me, much like big brother is watching me, but more like how dumb do they think I am?

Well theoretically with the technology the system would begin to adapt to not only long term but short term temporal patterns in your searching habits. There is also an element on conversions involved in that a type of ad that seems unappealing (ie; you didn’t interact with) then a profile is developed there as well (in the adserving). It is a combination of getting to know you and then looking to refine what they present you via potential probabilistic matching.

Still curious about how to personalize my sites, given that they are only partially locale oriented (hot beds of activity for my niche are the UK, Germany, south Pacific Rim, Australia, and North America -- excluding Mexico.)

Now don’t confuse Personalized Search (PS) with optimizing via Geo-targeting. If you are Geo-targeting you would still be taken such steps regardless of implications around performance metrics. While personalized search and Universal Search both raise the level of visibility for locale markets, it is not directly a catch-all to understanding PS. For that we want to start and think about user engagement with the SERPs and your site. User Performance Metrics start to become an important factor for consideration in you optimization efforts.

Not much different really, except how all incompassing Google is becoming, and how much spying are we willing to accept for convenience?!

Now now… as I say to any of the Anti-Google types; YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE IN GOOGLE….. feel free to use the NOINDEX and NOFOLLOW commands to keep Google out and they will happily stop indexing your site and sending you traffic. It is a business not a public service. If you want one of those, ask you local Government to start their own search engine with your tax dollars…. If not? Then deal with them or tell them not to index U….. :0)

… Hell… throw away all your technology and come live in the boonies with me…. Outside of a computer I am pretty free from them…. The world ain’t so bad when you don’t worry about those silly things…

Gyps, so can I take that as it's just merely business to ya?! I've been trying to do that my entire life -- think logically, and let emotions never enter the equation. I'm jealous! (Notice the emotional reaction. LOL)

Eh, anyway, tried considering this out logically all day, but still haven't come up with a logical answer to my worries. I do disagree that the answer is to simply stop Google from indexing my sites though. When our only local cable company increased their rates to $35/mo. -- over a decade ago, we did do the obvious, stopped sending them money. We haven't had cable since. That is the logic answer to a problem with a company, a consumer doesn't agree with -- stop using them. Apparently, we're one of a few people who have done that, and they've been raising their rates steadily ever since -- occasionally having customers write an editorial to our little local paper complaining about the rates, while the writer continues to buy it.

But Google isn't merely over doing it to me. What they do affects everyone with a site online, or an interest online. Taking over so much, may well end up having them do the same thing the media conglomerates wanted to do -- only index those places that paid for inclusion, and the rest sit outside the window looking in. Changes the entire complexity of the Internet.

I still don't know what to do to protest, BUT Microsoft might be on the verge of changing this whole complexity of this possible problem by buying Yahoo! (Offer doesn't mean accepted, so time will only tell.) MSN really never was any big thing SE wise, but they do know how to make money. I think Yahoo is inept, but they are making money (either that, or MSN wants to spend a whole lot of moeny for nothing! ). I think if MSN buys out Yahoo, it could be in serious contention with Google. Kinda scary a monopoly pitting itself against a different monopoly, but it has helped in the past. What would life be like with just McDonalds and no Burger King? (Silly comparison for me, since I don't eat beef, but the best I can do at the moment.)

I'm not online to make my fortunes. Someday I hope to make enough off my sites to pay for the added expenses of having a paid URL address and hosting, might even go so far as to make a few hundred per month, but my main purpose is fun, and those are the visitors I want to come and enjoy my sites.

I think back over the years and realize how much my life has been affected by the Internet. I didn't learn what's wrong with me from a doctor, (they couldn't figure it out, so simply labeled me as a hypochondriac). but from a free message board online. My husband did find out what was wrong with him from a doctor, but the Internet let him know he wasn't nuts when the treatment for his problem caused other problems, and ended up making him permenantly disabled. (Without it, he'd be dying, so he did get a slightly better choice.) Between the two of us, we can't get out much, and certainly cannot get out merely to socialize, so the Internet is where we socialize and talk to others, besides each other. Two years ago, my dad was diagnosed with a serious problem. Doctors tend to tell people what they have, but rarely go into much depth as to what that means, so I learned what we will all be facing/are facing with my Dad. And, well, I know it sounds silly, but after going through all this medical info we've received freely online, sometimes I just gotta let lose and play, so even TBs are important for me online. I realize the vast majority of places online are there to sell a product or serivce, BUT if they all are, what will be missing is a gap that can literally hurt many, or, at the very least, be very boring.

I know you make your money by figuring out what the latest is in SEO and applying it, so it's reasonable to be logical. Scares the crap out of me that soon, it could be the most important thing to know online. I've got no problems with a monopoly owning the Internet, if they just plan on making money from it, but have no intension of changing it's nature -- and I can see LOTS of bad in the nature of this beast. If I come up with any logical response, I'll let ya know. Holding your breath waiting for that day, will leave you fainting often.