The game HAS CHANGED folks.. kiss SEO goodbye

[DaveManTheCaveMan]

Today..

From The System Seminar.

Google is moving to Universal Personalized Search.

Meaning .. from now on each person's individual search history will determine which sites come up for them specific to what they have searched/visited in the past.

No more number 1 on Google because every number 1 spot will be custom to each individual user's past history.

Time to buy some traffic ladies and gentlemen.

[Andy Fletcher]

Universal Personalized Search doesn't mean Google will show random results. You're not going to be shown dog training products when you search for weight loss tips. There will always be an algorithm and thus a way to optimize for it.

[rondo]

That would be a problem if people searched for the same thing every day.

But they don't.


Andrew

[Ernie Lonardo]

I think its a pretty sily idea by Google. What possibly from our past search results could determine the ranking of a unrelated website?

Plus the past is the past...people change.

Unless it resets every so often I dont see how it is any better for us.

However we will adapt just like we always do....nothing to be too worried about I dont think.

[Andyhenry]

I think you've got the wrong end of the stick on this.

It doesn't mean that the normal organic results won't show any more.

It just means that the first result will be the places you visited before.

They're just making the assumption that often when you look for something - you already found it previously, so sites that you went to are stored and presented above the organic results to save you time.

SEO will still be just as important as ever.

[DaveManTheCaveMan]

Originally Posted by Andy Fletcher

Universal Personalized Search doesn't mean Google will show random results. You're not going to be shown dog training products when you search for weight loss tips. There will always be an algorithm and thus a way to optimize for it.

As an example ..what they're saying is.. if you click a lot of Frank Kern's links. You'll be shown more Frank Kern. Or even if you fall into a category of people who are similar to you and like Frank Kern.. you will be shown Frank Kern.

Even if you search for "internet marketer" and Eben Pagan has a better "optimized" site for the term internet marketer and Eben USED to be #1 on Google for everybody.. the person who tends to click Franks links will be shown more of Franks links above Ebens.

So all the work Eben put into his SEO for the last ten year is now pointless because Google changed it's criteria to favor most heavily CUSTOM, personalized clicking behavior, age, past browsing history, demographic profile, psychographic profile, income etc etc.

All the stuff Google knows about the user(and they know alot) will be taken into account.

Meaning if you have better "SEO" than your competitor .. it doesn't matter .. they'll still show your competitor above you (or not) on a completely customized ..case by case basis.

There's no more top spot on Google because each user gets a personalized set of results unique to them.

100 people can search the same term and all 100 will be shown different results.

A black woman who makes 500k+ a year and owns a dog you might be shown a site who's users are mostly black women that make 500k+ a year and also own dogs.

A white guy who is a college grad and read's fox news makes 30k a year has 2 kids and is divorced will be shown similar results that other white guys who like fox news and make 30k have kids and are divorced have clicked.

Similar as opposed to exact because the users PERSONALIZED "profile" is taken into account most heavily.

You can optimize for SEO all you want but no two people will be shown the same results anymore..

We are all now truly unique little snowflakes

Thanks big G

[Andy Fletcher]

Originally Posted by DaveManTheCaveMan

As an example ..what they're saying is.. if you click a lot of Frank Kern's links. You'll be shown more Frank Kern. Or even if you fall into a category of people who are similar to you and like Frank Kern.. you will be shown Frank Kern.

Even if you search for "internet marketer" and Eben Pagan has a better "optimized" site for the term internet marketer and Eben USED to be #1 on Google for everybody.. the person who tends to click Franks links will be shown more of Franks links above Ebens.

So all the work Eben put into his SEO for the last ten year is now pointless because Google changed it's criteria to favor most heavily CUSTOM, personalized clicking behavior, age, past browsing history, demographic profile, psychographic profile, income etc etc.

All the stuff Google knows about the user(and they know alot) will be taken into account.

Meaning if you have better "SEO" than your competitor .. it doesn't matter .. they'll still show your competitor above you (or not) on a completely customized ..case by case basis.

There's no more top spot on Google because each user gets a personalized set of results unique to them.

100 people can search the same term and all 100 will be shown different results.

A black woman who makes 500k+ a year and owns a dog you might be shown a site who's users are mostly black women that make 500k+ a year and also own dogs.

A white guy who is a college grad and read's fox news makes 30k a year has 2 kids and is divorced will be shown similar results that other white guys who like fox news and make 30k have kids and are divorced have clicked.

Similar as opposed to exact because the users PERSONALIZED "profile" is taken into account most heavily.

You can optimize for SEO all you want but no two people will be shown the same results anymore..

We are all now truly unique little snowflakes

Thanks big G

So when I search for "Google" I'll get 500 different results depending on my age/race/religion/income/hamster obsession?

[jazbo]

How many product buyers do multiple searches over weeks and months? Not many. They search, buy and move on.

So its still game one as always.

[JamesFrancisIM]

Originally Posted by Andy Fletcher

Universal Personalized Search doesn't mean Google will show random results. You're not going to be shown dog training products when you search for weight loss tips. There will always be an algorithm and thus a way to optimize for it.

Andy's right.

This has been discussed widely before, and the key is to get your foot in the door before anyone else by optimizing your site as best as possible. Then your website will BECOME your visitor's favourite, and thus be shown higher in the search engine rankings.

The industry is constantly changing, but we as marketers always find a way to overcome any new obstacles and profit more than most. Change is often a good thing.

Hope I've helped :-)

- James.

[WealthWithin]

This is nothing new, and had been announced few months ago.

When someone says SEO is dead (not OP) it's always because they have some PPC product to sell.

SEO will always be there as long as search engines are there.
SEO is not a 'bad practice' and Google wants you to SEO your pages - so that they can show the most relevant-related information to the user.

Simply put, Google wants you to be - whom you appear to be.

As long as you have SEO'ed your sites with proper white-hat methods and your sites are providing some value (doesn't have to be the best) to the user you can benefit from SEO.

[DaveManTheCaveMan]

Originally Posted by Andy Fletcher

So when I search for "Google" I'll get 500 different results depending on my age/race/religion/income/hamster obsession?

If 500 search for "Apple" 500 different people will get different results based on .. if they like to eat apples.. own an apple farm.. just bought a Mac mini, Just bought a Macbook Pro, are looking for a job in software development, make music using garage band, or like apple bottom jeans

[CDarklock]

Originally Posted by DaveManTheCaveMan

Meaning if you have better "SEO" than your competitor .. it doesn't matter .. they'll still show your competitor above you (or not) on a completely customized ..case by case basis.

Dave, you don't seem to understand.

This is precisely the way it was always supposed to work.

When you search for "internet marketing," you are supposed to get the sites that you want to find.

The existence of SEO in any sense other than having what the individual search visitor wants has ALWAYS been an unfortunate artifact of limited technology.

Whenever someone who liked Frank Kern got Eben Pagan's site in spot #1 instead of Frank Kern's, that was a failure. It was treated as a bug in the software which needed to be fixed.

The game hasn't actually changed. It's just gotten a bit harder to cheat. Those of us who weren't cheating in the first place... don't care.

[thebitbotdotcom]

Profiling? Sounds intrusive...

[AverageGuy]

does "Personalized Search" = relavence feedback based search ? if yes, it only means the results will give more weight to the related sites that you visited before. it does not mean random.

david

[jasonmorgan]

oh no... they sky is falling

old news and you're way too concerned about it. it's not even close to being a game changer.

so it effects you and what you search for often but when it comes time for you to buy what I am selling (that you haven't searched for before) I'll still be at the top of the list.

[DaveManTheCaveMan]

Originally Posted by CDarklock

Dave, you don't seem to understand.

This is precisely the way it was always supposed to work.

When you search for "internet marketing," you are supposed to get the sites that you want to find.

The existence of SEO in any sense other than having what the individual search visitor wants has ALWAYS been an unfortunate artifact of limited technology.

Whenever someone who liked Frank Kern got Eben Pagan's site in spot #1 instead of Frank Kern's, that was a failure. It was treated as a bug in the software which needed to be fixed.

The game hasn't actually changed. It's just gotten a bit harder to cheat. Those of us who weren't cheating in the first place... don't care.

Right. Lol I do understand. I'm not on either side I'm just stating facts.

SEO was exploiting a "glitch in the matrix"

Until now.

The bug that allowed for SEO as we knew it has been fixed.

Good for Google and it's searchers. Bad for SEO guys and their clients.

It is what it is.

"In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." Eric Hoffer

[butters]

My life is over ...

[Murderface]

Even if this was an issue, which it isn't, the real question would be - how is Google planning on tracking all of this? The answer to that question may determine the true importance of the matter. Even then, assuming the worst case scenario, the majority of said tracking would be heavily influenced by the original 'SEO' results.

-M

[EndGame]

"It is what it is?"

It might be sir, but its not what YOU say it is.

SEO will change, but it's not going anywhere. The search engines still need to know what is relevant in order to display the results in the fashion that you describe. User behavior/demographics alone is not going to dictate which websites are displayed. Thats an absolute fantasy. At least for now.

I actually see very few facts in your statements and it seems you have just focussed on one aspect of what this news is.

SEO will change because of this, but it's far from gone. As a side-note, this isn't news either. It has been discussed for a while now, and I've been reading up on it for the last few months.

[Robert Puddy]

Originally Posted by DaveManTheCaveMan

"In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." Eric Hoffer

On a completely different subject ....

this quote should be used everytime someone brings up bad grammar and stuff in sales copy

[nadia712]

Originally Posted by CDarklock

Dave, you don't seem to understand.

This is precisely the way it was always supposed to work.

When you search for "internet marketing," you are supposed to get the sites that you want to find.

The existence of SEO in any sense other than having what the individual search visitor wants has ALWAYS been an unfortunate artifact of limited technology.

Whenever someone who liked Frank Kern got Eben Pagan's site in spot #1 instead of Frank Kern's, that was a failure. It was treated as a bug in the software which needed to be fixed.

The game hasn't actually changed. It's just gotten a bit harder to cheat. Those of us who weren't cheating in the first place... don't care.

Exactly.

Give people what they're searching for, don't try to cheat the system, and this update has more of a chance of helping you than hurting you.

Think of it as a reminder system, in a sense. It has the potential to serve a similar purpose as email marketing does, except it's within the user's search results rather than their inbox.

If they went to your site once, liked it, forgot about it, and searched for a similar thing again a couple of months down the road, Google will refresh their memory for you by placing your site a little higher in their personalized search results. Just like you remind people what you've got to offer by emailing your list periodically.

If you're running an online store, this is doubly good news. Repeat customers!

Oh, and, for the record, I definitely don't think SEO is dead.

[BIG Mike]

Firstly, the sky is not falling - this is old news...in fact some of you have probably been beta testing it and didn't even realize it.

We had a lengthy discussion about this topic a few months back - I'll see if I can dig up the thread. Meanwhile, the game has not changed...

[naonline]

Originally Posted by DaveManTheCaveMan

R
"In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." Eric Hoffer

The learners can also over analyse things as well.

This is a bit like saying don't invest in SEO because PPC ads will always appear above natural results.

As others have alluded to, you still need to appear at the top to become a favourite for future personalised search results.

Nick

[Mission0ps]

It made me giggle a bit to read "Those of us that don't cheat don't care" from above.

It's such a weird one to first wrap your head around, that's for sure almost every marketer suddenly thought that their websites were sitting top of google ...

Content writing as well as keyword research and placement still are the 2 heavy weights to beat. Easy to learn but harder to master..

[Brad Gosse]

Slow down there chickn little ')

Universal search will change the results yes but not to the point where a #1 authority site will lose it's top 10 spot.

Sure some people may see YouTube or shopping results first if they have proven they prefer that but the #1 result will still be in the top group

This is certainly a category to watch though.

[Marx Vergel Melencio]

Originally Posted by DaveManTheCaveMan

As an example ..what they're saying is.. if you click a lot of Frank Kern's links. You'll be shown more Frank Kern. Or even if you fall into a category of people who are similar to you and like Frank Kern.. you will be shown Frank Kern.

Even if you search for "internet marketer" and Eben Pagan has a better "optimized" site for the term internet marketer and Eben USED to be #1 on Google for everybody.. the person who tends to click Franks links will be shown more of Franks links above Ebens.

So all the work Eben put into his SEO for the last ten year is now pointless because Google changed it's criteria to favor most heavily CUSTOM, personalized clicking behavior, age, past browsing history, demographic profile, psychographic profile, income etc etc.

All the stuff Google knows about the user(and they know alot) will be taken into account.

Meaning if you have better "SEO" than your competitor .. it doesn't matter .. they'll still show your competitor above you (or not) on a completely customized ..case by case basis.

There's no more top spot on Google because each user gets a personalized set of results unique to them.

100 people can search the same term and all 100 will be shown different results.

A black woman who makes 500k+ a year and owns a dog you might be shown a site who's users are mostly black women that make 500k+ a year and also own dogs.

A white guy who is a college grad and read's fox news makes 30k a year has 2 kids and is divorced will be shown similar results that other white guys who like fox news and make 30k have kids and are divorced have clicked.

Similar as opposed to exact because the users PERSONALIZED "profile" is taken into account most heavily.

You can optimize for SEO all you want but no two people will be shown the same results anymore..

We are all now truly unique little snowflakes

Thanks big G

I see X angles (a lot of them) which could possibly be contradicting to what you're saying.

Angle 1: Google bots will be thinking for the user even before user decides to just go to a bookmarked page or a page in his Favorites folder or just type in specific phrases or domain names because the user wants to go to the same site/s? Not good for them, especially with a business founded on the service of providing most relevant and updated results, in which such results are changing with the person searching for new information each day.

What if I belong to a group that Google will show only most visited sites of particular cat food products? If I frequently visit a few of those sites and continue doing so while buying their products from them and one day, after a search for the same word, I'm pointed to the same sites when in fact there's news about the products I'm buying poisoning lots of poor cats around the world, then that wouldn't be the most updated, relevant and helpful results now, would it?

I think users will be given more options to personalize their searches whenever they search for a specific word or phrase. Bookmarking pages or placing pages in Favorites has also been a long available option, and Google knows people use these features to go to pages they've visited in the past.

People think and act for themselves. Google knows this as a fact. No bot can ever think like a person, more so a bot that makes judgements based on an existing profile of a person which can be wrong or misconstrued or outdated.

Google knows the most relevant results from a searched word or phrase wouldn't have the same relevance just because a user tends to choose to go to that page most often since we are in a time-space continium thereby an environment of constant change --- Google favors providing its users with groundbreaking, Earth-shattering news relevant to a searched term, so what if a person always goes to an online zombie game and searches for "zombie" one day only to be pointed to the same online zombie game page, without the person knowing that the world is under a massive zombie attack, endangering him in the process?

Angle 2: Google knows people use computers for public use in libraries, shops, malls, etc. What's their workaround for this if they decide to push through with what you're saying?

Angle 3: Search technology would stop being so useful as it is now. Not good for Google, and if Google spearheads what you're saying, that means they just gave their top spot to the next search engine.

These are just my opinions and inferences though.

[Avo19]

Turning off personalization : Personalized Search - Accounts Help

I've disabled Web History in all browsers. I noticed that they will show the same Adsense ads too, if personalisation is allowed. My partner kept getting ads related to a group of sites that she tended to search for in the PPC results, whereas, I wouldn't. We were both using the same ISP & geo location. A PITA when doing any ad spying.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Yet more misinformed hysteria.

I'm going to explain this simple enough that a 2 year old can understand it.

John Doe wakes up one morning and finds he has a hemorrhoid. He's never
had one of these before in his life. So he goes to Google to look for some
kind of miracle cure. Since he's never searched for this problem before there
is no personalized search for him for these keywords. Thus, the site that
comes up number 1 for him is going to be the person who was smart enough
to SEO his site up to the top of the SERPs for that keyword phrase.

Now, John Doe tries out product from site 1. It sucks and doesn't work. When
he goes back to Google and looks for another one, even though that site
might come up number 1 because he clicked on it before, do you REALLY
think he's going to go back to it?

NO... he's going to go to the NEXT site on the list. That will go to the
person who was second smartest enough to get HIS site to number 2.

The ONLY time personalized search is going to make any rat's behind of
a difference is in a case like this one.

I like to look up movies and celebrities to see what they've been in. My
favorite site for that is IMDB. So when I do a search for keywords related
to that niche, IMDB MIGHT come up number 1.

Guess what? Sometimes it doesn't because let's face it...this is a broad
niche and movies and celebrities can't really be squeezed into one area.

And if it's music, I like Wikipedia...which also has celebrities.

So what ends up happening, at least for me, is that IMDB and Wiki come
up towards the top most of the time.

But if I didn't like what I was getting from these sites, I'd look for other
sites.

Point is, personalized search works on past history, which, in most cases,
means you've found something you like.

Well guess what, most people when they find something they like, bookmark
the darn thing anyway and don't need to do a search.

IMO, personalized search is one of the most worthless things Google has
done.

If you already like it, you know where it is and don't need to search for
it again.

If you don't like it or don't know about anything in that area yet, there are
no personalized results yet.

IMO...Google created one of the most useless tools imaginable.

It's certainly nothing to be worried about.

[Andy Fletcher]

Originally Posted by DaveManTheCaveMan

If 500 search for "Apple" 500 different people will get different results based on .. if they like to eat apples.. own an apple farm.. just bought a Mac mini, Just bought a Macbook Pro, are looking for a job in software development, make music using garage band, or like apple bottom jeans

So I do a search for a bunch of items like "MacBook Pro", "30 inch cinema display", "iMac" then I search for Apple and it's more likely to show me Apple (as in the company)'s website than a site about eating apples ... thus making it easier for Apple (as in the company) to target people interested in computers and ignore those interested in apples (as in the fruit).

And that's a bad thing for SEOs how?

[John Hocking]

Google is always trying to give the user what he/she is looking for and further qualify them for their advertisers.

The change amounts to behavorial search.

If you are looking for a honda accord, you might be doing research, technical issues or places to buy one.

If you click mostly on review sites, you searches will start to be optimized for review sites.

If you click mostly on trouble shooting or repair sites, yours searches will trend towards mostly tech sites.

If you click mostly on sales sites, you will trend towards dealerships. Google will also try to personalize you to local dealerships.

Google is trying to give the user more relevant results.

If your website applies more to a regional location. I would spend more time working on local listing reults as they will play a big role in the new why listing are presented to users.

[Mike Anthony]

Steve nailed it. Want another reason why SEO isn't going anywhere.

How many people have their IP change? ( Answer - Millions)
How many people have their cookies and history cleared purposefully or otherwise (Answer - Millions).
How many people use Google without signing in? (Answer Millions)

DavemantheCaveman. Come on man. Research something before you go off into fantasy land

This was amusing though

A black woman who makes 500k+ a year and owns a dog you might be shown a site who's users are mostly black women that make 500k+ a year and also own dogs.

So Google now can use your computer monitor as a racial profiler and can verify my income? and can invade another site's back end data and determine what the racial make up there is as well? (Why do people believe Google is omniscient?) I wasn't aware that Google recorded race or income and me doing a search for an african american topic ( if there actually is such a thing) would be very unreliable (after black history month a lot of people might change skin color). How is Google going to determine my income again? Because I searched on how to make 2 million dollars per year? or because I fantasize about a roll's royce?

You've over analyzed and generalized. Personal search isn't going to go into all these intricacies as you imagine. If I do a search a lot then its going to give me results I need and want. Its not going to give 700 people 700 different results just for the fun of it. You've made that up with no evidence.

besides if you think about it and Google really did factor in every search I do in the meticulous way you imagine SEO would still be great. Once I have done all the kinds of searches people do related and unrelated to their life the more in common i would have with people and the serps would settle out to close to what they are now anyway. As humans we have more in common than we have unique. All it would lead to is more niche SEO. Something many of us are already doing. Thats all.

[Black Hat Cat]

Originally Posted by DaveManTheCaveMan

As an example ..what they're saying is.. if you click a lot of Frank Kern's links. You'll be shown more Frank Kern. Or even if you fall into a category of people who are similar to you and like Frank Kern.. you will be shown Frank Kern.

Even if you search for "internet marketer" and Eben Pagan has a better "optimized" site for the term internet marketer and Eben USED to be #1 on Google for everybody.. the person who tends to click Franks links will be shown more of Franks links above Ebens.

So all the work Eben put into his SEO for the last ten year is now pointless because Google changed it's criteria to favor most heavily CUSTOM, personalized clicking behavior, age, past browsing history, demographic profile, psychographic profile, income etc etc.

All the stuff Google knows about the user(and they know alot) will be taken into account.

Meaning if you have better "SEO" than your competitor .. it doesn't matter .. they'll still show your competitor above you (or not) on a completely customized ..case by case basis.

There's no more top spot on Google because each user gets a personalized set of results unique to them.

100 people can search the same term and all 100 will be shown different results.

A black woman who makes 500k+ a year and owns a dog you might be shown a site who's users are mostly black women that make 500k+ a year and also own dogs.

A white guy who is a college grad and read's fox news makes 30k a year has 2 kids and is divorced will be shown similar results that other white guys who like fox news and make 30k have kids and are divorced have clicked.

Similar as opposed to exact because the users PERSONALIZED "profile" is taken into account most heavily.

You can optimize for SEO all you want but no two people will be shown the same results anymore..

We are all now truly unique little snowflakes

Thanks big G

You're delusional. But if it works for you, run with it. Forgive me if I don't participate in your fantasy though.

[nettech]

Hmmmmm....business as usual then? lol :-)

[nuclear81]

I asked a friend of mine who works at Google and this is what he said...

1. People who search for the same thing often & click on the same links will now see those links as the top results. If for instance they search for "dog training" and click on the same 8 results, then those will be numbers 1-8 for them the next time they do this same (or similar) search.

2. If your paid ad is shown on the results page it will NOT be shown as one of the organic results unless it happens to be one of that persons top picks.

3. There will be several other minor tweaks, but nothing that should impact legitimate business too much. The other changes are mainly to punish people who use black-hat tactics to gain top rankings.

[Steve Crooks]

There is no doubt that Google are heading for individualized listings but that doesn't mean that SEO is not going to work anymore. It is however, another hammer blow to anyone who believes that throwing up junk content works as a strategy. Once again, quality content, matched with solid SEO is the name of the game.

[snobants]

Pass more than 1 year after and SEO its a fully live and safe.

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by nuclear81

I asked a friend of mine who works at Google and this is what he said...

1. People who search for the same thing often & click on the same links will now see those links as the top results. If for instance they search for "dog training" and click on the same 8 results, then those will be numbers 1-8 for them the next time they do this same (or similar) search.

Thats been in effect for awhile now. Every week we have people thinking they are ranking number one for their keywords only to find out its been personalized but that hasn't changed the serps much.

[robmena]

SEO will always be around, thats like saying websites are no longer gonna be used.

[Aspiring Guru]

I think as long as you have good keywords and a quality page, you should still be fine. Even if Google DOES change the first ranking result, it won't chnage them all based on this, because that would be self-destructive on their part. Google still wants you to find new pages, even if they are tailoring your search a little more towards you.

[Goatboy]

Okay, so let me get this straight. Google is going to stop giving me anything that is relevant and instead is only going to tell me what I want to hear?

Will Google be running for office in the 2012 elections?

[Fernando Veloso]

Different challenge, same solution: good sites, visitor driven.

We just need to focus on good sites... the ones people visit for 10 minutes, the ones Google will (definitely) show them AGAIN.

Even with personalized search, i bet Google won't show you again a site you dropped after 3 seconds... right?

[rvrabel2002]

Originally Posted by rondo

That would be a problem if people searched for the same thing every day.

But they don't.


Andrew

Agreed with this statement. How often do you really search the same things everyday?

[Zach Booker]

This is November/December '09 old news.

1) This will barely affect terms that aren't very broad in how they can be defined (ones that Google itself struggles to find the best results for) or extremely visited terms (by you) with a clear user path.

2) If you don't see the massive potential to exploit the latest addition to the algorithm you should quit right now.

Hint: Bots, lots of bots. Bots, lots of bots, clicking links. Hmm...

Zach

P.S - See pic below:

[Wakunahum]

I guess I don't philosophically understand the concept of this being a "goodbye" to SEO.

If a search engine changes what results show up, Search Engine Optimization will still be the process of optimizing pages to show up in the results. It's not always going to work the same way from decade to decade, but optimization will always happen as long as search engines exist.

[mikkosant]

So, if a person has a blog covering tons of topics and a user clicks on his blog one time through google, the blog will be listed on page one anytime a user searches for a keyword the blog has a page for?

[landonwiggs]

NO, You guys need to go visit Matt Cutt's website. This is not messing with the organic listings, it just shows small link above the original organic results. It doesnt change the organic listings to what the user wants. They just have the ability to basically bookmark a page and have a small link show above the regular organic listings. SEO will never die unless search engines die. and that won't happen anytime soon.

go see Google stars for bookmarking

[Hyaku_Man]

Oh no, the sky is falling. I'd better quit IM.

[jacky212]

Anyway i don't personally think that this is going to affect the SEO world.... I find this really interesting.. and i guess driving the traffic is the key....

[Daniel McGonagle]

Well put Steve, pretty realistic scenario there...

The PLUS side of this is the hemorrhoid researcher, when researching similar terms (ABC) , will find your site again at the top of his/her search if they found you top ranked for XYZ keyword in the first place.

Which means it's even more important to work on SEO, since getting that top-ranked long tail could lead to a lot more traffic if the searcher never logs out of their Gmail account or flush their cookies, and personalized search history.

Nice to see some Warrior s putting this mis information to rest

Good job everyone!

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Yet more misinformed hysteria.

I'm going to explain this simple enough that a 2 year old can understand it.

John Doe wakes up one morning and finds he has a hemorrhoid. He's never
had one of these before in his life. So he goes to Google to look for some
kind of miracle cure. Since he's never searched for this problem before there
is no personalized search for him for these keywords. Thus, the site that
comes up number 1 for him is going to be the person who was smart enough
to SEO his site up to the top of the SERPs for that keyword phrase.

Now, John Doe tries out product from site 1. It sucks and doesn't work. When
he goes back to Google and looks for another one, even though that site
might come up number 1 because he clicked on it before, do you REALLY
think he's going to go back to it?

NO... he's going to go to the NEXT site on the list. That will go to the
person who was second smartest enough to get HIS site to number 2.

The ONLY time personalized search is going to make any rat's behind of
a difference is in a case like this one.

I like to look up movies and celebrities to see what they've been in. My
favorite site for that is IMDB. So when I do a search for keywords related
to that niche, IMDB MIGHT come up number 1.

Guess what? Sometimes it doesn't because let's face it...this is a broad
niche and movies and celebrities can't really be squeezed into one area.

And if it's music, I like Wikipedia...which also has celebrities.

So what ends up happening, at least for me, is that IMDB and Wiki come
up towards the top most of the time.

But if I didn't like what I was getting from these sites, I'd look for other
sites.

Point is, personalized search works on past history, which, in most cases,
means you've found something you like.

Well guess what, most people when they find something they like, bookmark
the darn thing anyway and don't need to do a search.

IMO, personalized search is one of the most worthless things Google has
done.

If you already like it, you know where it is and don't need to search for
it again.

If you don't like it or don't know about anything in that area yet, there are
no personalized results yet.

IMO...Google created one of the most useless tools imaginable.

It's certainly nothing to be worried about.

[mllnsgrl]

I personally like to disable this feature by clicking on "web history," and also don't stay signed into Google. Just the thought of google as any kind of big brother is extremely annoying.