Google Now Tracks Which Search Results You Click?

Jack writes "Has anyone else noticed that the best search engine out there, Google, now generates links for some of its search results which point back to Google before redirecting you to the site's URL? I can't help thinking they'll be using this information to sell targeted search results and measure how effective it is. I guess they have to make a buck, but this could be the start of a very slippery slope. It's also interesting to see which search queries generate tracking results. For example, "Quake" generates them for every link." The monetization of Google proceeds...

Comments

Google say the following

[tagishsimon]

Google say the following

What Information Do We Collect?

From time to time we may request that you provide us with certain personal information about you in connection with various services offered on our site. Google does not collect any personal information about you (such as your name, email address, etc.) except when you specifically and knowingly provide such information.

Links to Other Sites

The sites displayed as search results or linked to by Google Search Services are developed by people over whom Google exercises no control. Other links, such as those for the Google-friends mailing list archive, are also on sites not controlled by Google. These other sites may send their own cookies to users, collect data, or solicit personal information. Google may choose to exhibit its search results in the form of a "URL redirecter." When Google uses a URL redirecter, if you click on a URL from a search result, information about the click is sent to Google, and Google in turn sends you to the site you clicked on. Google uses this URL information to understand and improve the quality of Google's search technology. For instance, Google uses this information to determine how often users are satisfied with the first result of a query and how often they proceed to later results.

With Whom Does Google Share Information?

Google may share information about you with advertisers, business partners, sponsors, and other third parties. However, we only divulge aggregate information about our users and will not share personally identifiable information with any third party without your express consent. For example, we may disclose how frequently the average Google user visits Google, or which other query words are most often used with the query word "Linux." Please be aware, however, that we will release specific personal information about you if required to do so in order to comply with any valid legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order.

Taking privary a bit too far

[gengee]

This is just absurd. Firstly, after a quick grep, I find that google has placed a single cookie on my computer - One that I asked them to place, to save my preferences for language settings. They may or may not use this "preference ID" to track where I click. I really could not care less. They don't have my home address. They don't have my email address. They have no phone number. Not even a fake name. This is not a decision I made - they simply never asked for any of this information. This is closer to anononymity than you could ever hope to get in the 'real' world.

If they want to target advertisements to me, so be it. I might actually click on a few of them. At some point, someone has to pay for their large and expensive network. While I'm not convinced advertising alone is capable of doing this, at least it's a start. They provide a *great* service. Having said that, it occurs to me that I would greatfully pay 5$/month to use the search engine.

Just my two cents.
signature smigmature

Collection everywhere

[fm6]

This is similar to a feature I've noticed in Internet Explorer. If you enter anything in the address box that isn't a fully qualified URL (even if it's just a web address with "http://" missing), it gets passed to a Microsoft server, which is responsible for expanding the URL, interpreting it as a search, etc. Since few people bother to type out the "http://", Mr. Bill would have no trouble maintaining a log of every user's browsing habits.

I haven't looked into it, but I gather there's a similar feature in Netscape/Mozilla.

I think the bottom line is that a user who wan't absolute privacy has to anonymize all web usage. If you don't believe that's possible, or you're just not paranoid enough, you have to hope that Google, Microsoft, et al. actually stick to their own privacy policies.

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Could they be doing something better?

[funkman]

They may be making a correlation between your search criteria and what you had clicked on as a match. With any luck, with such data they can make their search engine better.

ego gratification

[K-Man]

You have to understand the frustration of running a search engine: you never know how good your result ranking is, because you never know which result the user clicked on, or whether the user simply gave up and went to another search engine.

The only way to track this behavior is to put up a redirect (or run an ISP - the free ones log just about everything).