When you sign up for a personalized Google page, you are able to configure the traditionally sparse Google search layout with various widgets covering topics like sports, finance, news, and events. It lets you set up a personalized view of the things you care about, but the search on the page was still the same general search.
Until now…
According to a post last Friday (by Sep Kamvar and Marissa Mayer) on The Official Google Blog, Google has now extended personalization into their search. Anyone that is logged in to Google when they search will start to see results that are more targeted to their specific interests. The search experience is described in the post by Sal Kamvar:
Keep in mind that personalization is subtle—at first you may not notice any difference. But over time, as the search engine learns your preferences, you’ll see it. For example, I (Sep) am an avid Miami Dolphins fan (no joke). Searching for [dolphins] gives me info about my favorite football team, while a marine biologist colleague gets more information about her salt-water friends.
This is clearly a big step up from generic search, and could work well in many situations. But as I’ve said before, search still has a long way to go. In the same way that the knowledge of the searcher can better focus what they might be asking for, knowledge of a document or page’s author can better establish what it is they are talking about. It will be the pairing of these two elements within the context of a specific domain that will produce an intuitive and powerful search experience. None of the search providers are there yet.
I’m glad to see that Google has taken the first step…