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Google Patent for User Targeted Search Results

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the in-the-crosshairs dept.

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."

5 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Disposable personalities by zecg · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Don't allow cookies accross sessions, dispose of your personalities and change your gmail accounts regularly, use only GPG 4096-byte encrypted text in your gmail account, put on your tinfoil hat when thinking anything at all and - you'll still be within the System, tracked and numbered.

    --
    .i lu doi ringos.star. xu do puku'aroroi dunli dopecaku leni virnu li'u
  2. Cradle-to-Grave Ad Tracking by K-Man · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Let's face it, the only economic reason for a company to build and host a bunch of unrelated applications is to link together advertising and user profiles. Why else would a search engine be talking about providing free WiFi service? So they can track users' locations and deliver location-targeted ads.

    --
    ---- "If we have to go on with these damned quantum jumps, then I'm sorry that I ever got involved" - Erwin Schrodinger
  3. Re:Do No Evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "How could Google build such user profiles to serve customized organic (non-paid) results to? " They already have the information. Google imbeds a cryptographically signed globally unique identifier on every computer that uses its search (it's set to expire in a few decades, so the only way to get rid of it is by deleting cookies. If you have the toolbar, you're probably out of luck). After recording what you search for with your unique ID, Google uses a number of methods to determine what link you clicked on, seemingly based on the age of your ID and your browser (the way Google gets my clicks for instance is with javascript that loads a spammer style "image" just as the new page is loaded. The image is nothing, but the "url" sent to Google for it contains all the information about who you are and where you are going). This is why so many of Google's services remain in infinite beta - the services aren't the main point, it's the personal information Google can gather about you that they want. Advertisers pay top dollar for targeted advertisements - a list of 1 million email addresses is worth about the same as 100 email addresses with a small number of statistics. Google offers companies the ability to spam people with an extremely large amount of personal information to go on.

  4. So that's why... by mikael · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This has been driving me nuts for some time now.

    Often, when trying to find some information at work, I'll try a Google search, and
    make a note of the search terms in order to continue working at home. Then when I go
    home and type in the same set of keywords, I'll get a completely different set of
    search results, with the articles I was reading now missing.

    --
    Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
  5. Teaching someone to search? by kinbote · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This may be a disaster for Person X trying to communicate to Person Y how to search for a particular topic. The terms that yield good results for X may receive hidden help from X's personal context, which is totally murky and can't be readily communicated to Y, let alone typed in the search box...

    As a simplified example, consider how the agriculture professor and a freshman student may end up with wildly divergent search results for "Onion"...