LifeInSearch.com

Have you guys noticed anything strange about Gmail lately? Is it just me, or am I seeing the early signs of Google Personalization? People have been speculating and ranting about this for a little while now, but I think I’m starting to see it in action. Let’s do a little test. Go over to Wikipedia, and pick ten random topics. Feed them into the search bar, then copy-and-paste each of the articles into notepad or whatever. Then log into one of your email accounts, and send each of those articles (individually) to yourself at Gmail. And be sure to use the name of the article (or a related keyword or phrase) in your subject line.

Now, when you check your gmail take note of the adverts in the right column. They will be subtly tailored to the content of the message, and I have to admit that it’s really starting to creep me out. The ad targetting is slightly off-base at times, but they are generally on point. What is really freaking me out is that when the ads are off-topic, they are still representative of my interests (ie. the general subject matter of my historical messages). This is precisely why I think that personalization has just been turned on. Is anybody else seeing this, or am I just slightly paranoid?

Not only is this sort of personalized targetting being applied to the advertisements contained in Gmail, it is also being applied to the standard search engine result pages. All signs are suggesting that Google is going to scale this out very soon. They are currently logging all of your user data with that nifty little toolbar, and now they have decided to supplement that data by implementing something called “search history“. What this means is that your search results will be tailored to your historical search profile. Over time, it will almost be like we are all using a different internet. What are the implications for the search marketing industry?

Matt Cutts, Google’s Chief Spam Hunter, claims that it will be the end of blackhat SEO. In a recent interview, he also refers to the new SEO (linkbaiting, social media optimization, etc) as a highly effective whitehat strategy for long term Google search marketing, and suggests that adopting the long tail theory will help to insulate sites from the effects of effects of personalization. I think most of us are already aware of this, but one thing that really caught my interest was the idea of optimizing for user experience. This poses an interesting dilemma for search merketers, in that a positive user experience is rooted in the intent of the user. I suppose we are all going to have to learn a lot more about remote viewing…

Honestly, I don’t know what to make of all the recent talk about Google Personalization. Essentially, Google will be tailoring their tools and services to your ultrasecret user profile housed deep in the depths of the GooglePlex. Larry Page recently claimed that they are not far off from implementing true artificial intelligence. Now, I don’t particularly believe him…but it does make me wonder. I have always believed that the highest of high technology in the public realm is roughly twenty old. I would be willing to bet the farm that certain governments (and by extension, their friends like Google) are in possession of technology that we can only imagine; literally the stuff of science fiction. Hopefully, there will still be some blackhats around when the army of GoogleBots come. Skynet, anyone?