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Google Patent for User Targeted Search Results
lorenbake writes "Scoble is one of many to report that Google has filed a patent for user targeted, or attention targeted, search results which will change the ranking of Google's organic results per each individual user based upon that user's search behavior, location, sites visited, and even 'typing behavior'. How could Google build such user profiles to serve customized organic (non-paid) results to? Tracking via their network of desktop apps, advertising, Gmail, and other network services."
Before this goes all big brother...
I just want to say that I hove no problem with targeted advertising at all. If there is a way that does not impose on my personal freedoms to selectiviely show me things that I might be interested in purchasing it is not only ok but much preffered to the massive spamvertisement campaigns that go on now.
-- The morphemes of your disquisition are ascertainable, but they have eschewed an ambit of transpicuous exposition.
It is about a stupid patent and is therefor evil. F google when they pull this crap.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
All I want...is the ability to easily opt out.
You must know that in reality you cannot sum things up as just plain "good" or "evil". We are getting the lesser of evils, would you rather msn had the patent? I think we are better off with google having it, after all someone would eventually.
Those guys at $oogle are making Microsoft look like amateurs when it comes to world domination!
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
... includes yours.
Oh, was that my outside voice?
My Gmail account is my "send everything here" account. It gets spam from every where from tin foil hat sites to live journal. If you can find a way to work out what I like from "Person X has replied to your comment with 'lol, I agree' " then that's fine by me.
I like muppets.
Where computers and systems know what you want and then give it to you. Good? Evil? Well that all depends on intent doesn't it.
Deleted
NO! the abuse of ptents is evil, and Google has yet to do this, they are just defending themselves in the arms race against ass-hats like Bezose and Gates, who patented the single and double clicks respectively, and other such loonicy. Google has yet to cross thhe line, untill they do, I will respect them -- HELL, if they havent abused teir power by now, why would they start?
"It is tiresome and the company is just as evil as all other companies."
Spent some time reading Mao's Little Red Book? What is the deal with this asinine belief that corporations, capitalism and money are somehow inherently "evil"? The threat here is personal privacy NOT a company trying to make money. Most companies are actually VERY GOOD for the average man and make our lives better. Keep the concern focused on privacy rather than jumping to socialism.
Perhaps they are filing the patent to prevent other companies from filing a similar patent and then using it against Google? Google has already started down the road of targetted ads for their users and storing everything they can about the user's search habits.
For example, if you sign up for a personalized google page, they'll start tracking your searchs, and they will even let you go back and look at the searches that you made weeks ago.
I personally like this kind of stuff. It's useful to me if I forgot to bookmark a site that I liked, I can go back through my search history and find the site again.
Don't count your messages before they ACK.
Makes perfect sense for google to track which links i click on - essentially i'm filtering out the type results I don't want, so if the search algorithm can learn from that and produce more relevant results, then great!
Privacy isn't such an issue on this considering Google already has this information on a per user level - this probably doesn't raise any additional privacy concerns.
Drag n' Drop DVD Recommendations
Google is not necessarily evil for doing taking out a patent. We live in a world of IP and patents. They probably have to do this for protection.
However, if Google starts using this patent to thwart their competition then they'll be making a mockery of their own do-no-evil slogan.
Google is getting worse and worse with privacy. From a geek point of view, they got a bunch of cool apps, but from a humanist point of view, I feel google is definately turning over to the dark side.
In a couple of years, we will probably be discussing Google and privacy concerns just like we discuss Microsoft and security concerns now.
It's been so long since I've used a rival search engine/site that I don't even know who the second best one is. I do remember that many of them also returned google search results along with their own. I don't imagine that Google will be able to profile other search sites the way it does individual users because so many users will create near randomness. So maybe those results will become better than results acquired directly from Google.
Unfortunately, in the real world, things are not so black and white.
I dont mind a bit handing over my personal information to a company i can trust.
When it comes to personal information, I think people shouldn't trust any company...
Even if they are a sexy do-no-evil, do-no-wrong ex-startup bent on world domination for your own good.
This has nothing to do just a single issue (as you are trying to narrow it down to for some reason) such as being anti-competitive.
Giggle is helping the Chinese oppress its citizens.
Giggle execs are buying plush polluting 767's while at the same time stating they drive hybrid cars and care about the environment.
Now Giggle has IPO'd and is at the mercy of shareholders who can pull the strings.
I don't like the idea of a company to have access to so much information about individual poeple and is using it for their own personal profit motivated desires. Obviously, this is open to more abuse too. What is stopping their DBA from mining a database for some dirt on someone?
it is kinda covered by a previous amazon patent, besides displaying an ad on a visitors behaviour exists for a long time:
....
.... e.g. you can distingush grandma typing 1 letter per 5 seconds, while mr 10-finger-typer geek can type 5+ letters in a sec :) hmm ... strange idea .... ..... cool idea:) never thought of that ....
:)
....
e.g.
My visitor is looking at portable mp3 audio players for the last 5 visits, you want to display an ipod commercial instead of a hairdryer.
When that user searches for "moby audio tracks" you will present results ranked higher for places that sell mp3 other than LPs.
Respect to google, but I think it is also a common knowledge patent. I mean what I mentioned is an afternoon of SQL query tuning that I do not want to compare to millions of results organized by google, but at the end that patent seems to cover a bunch of similar practices that fall under the
"search result ordering based on user behaviour"
the typing issue is a good idea though
I guess it also includes typo watch, misspell watch and similar
now google will start displaying ads about "quit drinking" or "hangover pills" when compared to my normal daily typing I start typing terribly on a late Saturday night ? ARE YOU DRUNK ?
now google just needs to start putting a HAL-like glowing red eye and microphones into our rooms, an anal implant and urine and stool analyzer to provide perfect results
off topic:
I mentioned it already , but interestingly the more and more google refines it's algo, the more and more I find myself using other search engines, as some of the things I am searching for provide less and less usable information for me...
for tech stuff google is unbeatable, however shopping/comparing and travel, I turn to yahoo more and more nowadays.....
Lobbying for software patents: Bad.
Applying for software patents: Sometimes necessary today, but shouldn't be.
Bragging about granted software patents: Impresses stock market, pisses me off.
Using patents offensively: Bad.
Using patents only defensively: Ok.
We'll see what Google does...
I doubt general ISP's have any processes that troll through users emails for marketing information. That just doesn't happen unless you are a search company. It's true that system admins will have access to your account but that is hardly similar to going through customers accounts looking for data to resell to others.