Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Tracking Frequent Users

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the so-are-the-illuminati dept.

BrianGa writes "According to this article, Google has started placing a counter on its home page for a small number of its most frequent users. Most Google users do not have it, but a select few now have a counter that notes the actual number of searches made. For the curious, an explanatory page linked to the counter reveals that this is a test, or limited-sample experiment of a new search counting feature."

5 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. google's infinite memory by datan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    isn't this the google.com which logs every single IP + search since it first started?

  2. Re:Google is dead : / by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My ISP (internet express in regional NSW, australia) receently entered into a contract with MSN to supply search services and with altavista and google search pages only the MSN one comes up instead

    I do get to google through a numeric address set in /etc/hosts but who wants to do that all the time?

    We really get ripped off out here there are no big ISP options in country australia

  3. Re:Crystal ball gazing by BiggerIsBetter · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Google is one of the few online tools I would consider paying for. If the paid-for version didn't include any ads/sponsored-placements at all, I'd probably do it.

    --
    Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
  4. Google as an indicator of consumer demand by benjamindees · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wonder if any of the search engines have actually begun to use search patterns as an insight into consumer demands and profit off of such foresight.

    It wouldn't be hard at all for a search engine to identify particularly insightful individuals, ones who consistently search for things in advance of their general availability or in advance of the masses, and use them as a barometer of future consumer demand.

    That person could, of course, never know that they were being monitored in such a way. Imagine the possibilities of subverting such a system: make frequent searches for whatever you want and *poof* it appears a few months later.

    --
    "I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
  5. Re:Google is already using cookies to track usage by mnmlst · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Whoa! I stand corrected. I have a natural tendency to root for the underdog and had run across a Slashdot posting about Google Watch months ago. I visited Google Watch, did not investigate further, only changed my search habits a little (using Yahoo only to realize it IS Google) and left this in the ditch. Based on your post, I have visited some related sites. I find the pro-Google arguments and its place in the market far more understandable now than I did before getting into this hornet's nest. You may not have a made a true believer of me, but I have taken the large grain of salt regarding Google Watch. Perhaps it is only natural to be wary of anthing that gets as hugely successful as Google, especially when that success comes quickly. Point, set, match to M. hkmwbz.

    --
    In principio erat Verbum.