Google Avatar/Personality Targeting by IP
- SEO |
Posted this on another Adwords Blog (Glen Livingston's):
"I recently moved from my house to my sister\'s house (divorce). Once at my sister\'s house, I checked a keyword (among several) to check it\'s placement organically. The site I was looking for was no where. All the 1st page results where completely different than those at my house (one hour away). At my house, the 1st page results had mostly product/service sites. At my sister\'s house, they were all research and info sites. My sister is a school teacher and does not buy on-line. I do buy on-line.
I was not logged into any Google account and cookies were clean. I figured a Google dance or a change in algorithm. On a whim, I took my computer with me to get some stuff at the old house. Plugged it up and the old results were back on page one. Returning to my sister\'s house an hour later, they were gone again, replaced with research and info sites. Strange.
I have a \'friend\', (not really a friend, but I am being cagey to not get anyone in trouble), who is related to a highly placed Google employee who as a rule doesn\'t talk about his work, even to his wife, sort of very CIA/NSA ish. Lol. Apparently he had a few drinks New Years at my freind\'s house and told him that Google was now tracking personality \'avatars\' or profiles by IP and returning results based of the greatest use of a profile by that IP. That would explain my experience perfectly! He went on to say that Google was using your wife\'s 37 personalities as their model in avatar building. The reason they are able to do this is the vast amount of computing power Hadoop has given them and that this would return the best results for the main household user of Search and take Google to another level.
The downside for organic SEO people is if they do NOT build avatars of their most likely Hyper-Responsive customers, they cannot optimize for results because according to this Google employee, Google is now starting to employ 37 different algorithms at the same time and using a different one for each IP based on the personality that IP\'s main user has and returning results for them only (and anyone sharing their personality type). Optimizing for one personality may very well de-optimize for another.
I figure if anyone has any inside track on the reality of this, it would be you. (Of course I would expect Google to deny any of this, but have had 1st hand experience with it. Should be reasonably easy to repeat my experience... just take your computer to a person\'s house that you know would fall into a different profile, use their IP and see if the results are the same as they are at home. Only draw back is this is apparently in \'test markets\' only as of right now.)
Anyway, I found this an interesting extension of what businesses have been doing for years in personality targeting and the fact this guy knew exactly who your wife was and her work including her 37 personalities that as far as I know were offered on-line for less than a week to your HR Club only?
Not sure how this may eventually effect what order paid ads are shown to different client or how that would effect the current pay model. Perhaps cost more to rank higher in an \'unlikely to click\' personality\'s search?
Thoughts?
Mark
PS-when I mention my experience and subsequent conversation with this \'friend\' about his relative\'s comments, people think I am nuts. Lol."
Apparently this is a current topic of conversation among Adword 'gurus' and I now have independent verification this is happening and is a fact! To me it is a game changer, even if you rank #1 at your house, doesn't mean you are even on the 1st page at 36 other houses.
his reply (I underlined the part where he verifies this is a topic of conversation elsewhere and looks like may be a real concern.):
"Hi Mark, that certainly is intriguing!
I don't have any inside knowledge to this effect, nor would I expect Google to let us know about it. (It certainly HAS been made public though, and widely circulated)
Notwithstanding the above, I'm sure Sharon would be happy to help them if they've got any questions (as would I), so please feel free to let your friend know
I can tell you for certain though that Google DOES consider geographic location (in addition to practically everything else they can get their hands on) when serving their results.
G"
Someone else posted (which to me verifies it is happening in that market too. As I said, I do not think it is wide spread yet, but it is coming!):
"Mark has made some great points. The results I see on my home system are completely different than the one's I see at my j.o.b. where I often research tech solutions for the servers I support."
Glen's blog here: The Problem with Making Too Much Money | Pay Per Click Search Marketing
"I recently moved from my house to my sister\'s house (divorce). Once at my sister\'s house, I checked a keyword (among several) to check it\'s placement organically. The site I was looking for was no where. All the 1st page results where completely different than those at my house (one hour away). At my house, the 1st page results had mostly product/service sites. At my sister\'s house, they were all research and info sites. My sister is a school teacher and does not buy on-line. I do buy on-line.
I was not logged into any Google account and cookies were clean. I figured a Google dance or a change in algorithm. On a whim, I took my computer with me to get some stuff at the old house. Plugged it up and the old results were back on page one. Returning to my sister\'s house an hour later, they were gone again, replaced with research and info sites. Strange.
I have a \'friend\', (not really a friend, but I am being cagey to not get anyone in trouble), who is related to a highly placed Google employee who as a rule doesn\'t talk about his work, even to his wife, sort of very CIA/NSA ish. Lol. Apparently he had a few drinks New Years at my freind\'s house and told him that Google was now tracking personality \'avatars\' or profiles by IP and returning results based of the greatest use of a profile by that IP. That would explain my experience perfectly! He went on to say that Google was using your wife\'s 37 personalities as their model in avatar building. The reason they are able to do this is the vast amount of computing power Hadoop has given them and that this would return the best results for the main household user of Search and take Google to another level.
The downside for organic SEO people is if they do NOT build avatars of their most likely Hyper-Responsive customers, they cannot optimize for results because according to this Google employee, Google is now starting to employ 37 different algorithms at the same time and using a different one for each IP based on the personality that IP\'s main user has and returning results for them only (and anyone sharing their personality type). Optimizing for one personality may very well de-optimize for another.
I figure if anyone has any inside track on the reality of this, it would be you. (Of course I would expect Google to deny any of this, but have had 1st hand experience with it. Should be reasonably easy to repeat my experience... just take your computer to a person\'s house that you know would fall into a different profile, use their IP and see if the results are the same as they are at home. Only draw back is this is apparently in \'test markets\' only as of right now.)
Anyway, I found this an interesting extension of what businesses have been doing for years in personality targeting and the fact this guy knew exactly who your wife was and her work including her 37 personalities that as far as I know were offered on-line for less than a week to your HR Club only?
Not sure how this may eventually effect what order paid ads are shown to different client or how that would effect the current pay model. Perhaps cost more to rank higher in an \'unlikely to click\' personality\'s search?
Thoughts?
Mark
PS-when I mention my experience and subsequent conversation with this \'friend\' about his relative\'s comments, people think I am nuts. Lol."
Apparently this is a current topic of conversation among Adword 'gurus' and I now have independent verification this is happening and is a fact! To me it is a game changer, even if you rank #1 at your house, doesn't mean you are even on the 1st page at 36 other houses.
his reply (I underlined the part where he verifies this is a topic of conversation elsewhere and looks like may be a real concern.):
"Hi Mark, that certainly is intriguing!
I don't have any inside knowledge to this effect, nor would I expect Google to let us know about it. (It certainly HAS been made public though, and widely circulated)
Notwithstanding the above, I'm sure Sharon would be happy to help them if they've got any questions (as would I), so please feel free to let your friend know
I can tell you for certain though that Google DOES consider geographic location (in addition to practically everything else they can get their hands on) when serving their results.
G
"Someone else posted (which to me verifies it is happening in that market too. As I said, I do not think it is wide spread yet, but it is coming!):
"Mark has made some great points. The results I see on my home system are completely different than the one's I see at my j.o.b. where I often research tech solutions for the servers I support."
Glen's blog here: The Problem with Making Too Much Money | Pay Per Click Search Marketing