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The Demographics of Web Search

Posted by kdawson on from the do-what-i-mean dept.

adaviel sends a link to work out of Yahoo Research indicating that demographics can help Web searches; e.g. a women searching for "wagner" probably wants the 18th-century German composer, while for men in the US "wagner" is a paint sprayer. The Yahoo researchers claim that by taking user demographics into account, "they managed to get the chosen link to appear as the top-ranked result 7 per cent more often than in the standard Yahoo search." New Scientist mentions this research and two other innovative adjuncts to current search practice: following the mouse cursor as a proxy for eye tracking, and taking back bearings on online criminals by studying the searches they make. (The latter raises disburbing privacy questions: would you want Google trolling through your search data? How about governments?)

5 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Correction: by BrokenHalo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Wagner was a 19th-century composer, not 18th.

    1. Re:Correction: by jonbryce · · Score: 2, Informative

      Richard Wagner is much more famous though.

    2. Re:Correction: by tehcyder · · Score: 2, Informative

      That sound you can hear is an almighty whoosh caused by the Ride of the Valkyries.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  2. wow... Just, wow.. by Dee+Ann_1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    "e.g. a women searching for "wagner" probably wants the 18th-century German composer"

    A -- women -- ???

    I see a FLOOD of this, women used where woman should be used and woman where women should be used.

    Wow......

  3. Wrong century by Raffaello · · Score: 2, Informative

    Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born in 1813 and died in 1883 which makes him a 19th Century German composer, not an 18th c. German composer.

    Remember, here in 2010 it's the 21st century; in 1910 it was the 20th c.; in 1810 it was the 19th c., etc.