Google will be rolling out a new sort of search engine, this one personal to you. Now, search results will combine things generally for the web and relevant to the person searching.
“Your world was missing from search until now,” said Google Fellow Amit Singhal. “We are bringing your world into search.”
This move is a significant one against Facebook for both clicks and ad dollars. It will combine their successful search engine with the social network Google+.
“It’s one of the most significant things Google has ever done in search,” said longtime Google observer Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineLand.com.
Google says that this is a demonstration on how they relate to people not just with content but their relationships as well. This is done by including photos you have shared privately, it will suggest people you may know when searching and is guiding users to profiles and Google+ pages related to the topic of interest.
When asked how users will react, Sullivan said, “Until now we have not had the mixture of our personal information with our Web search results, and that makes even me a bit nervous.”
This will become a feature that users have to actively turn off if they want to. It also slants searches towards Google+, giving the site an advantage over a Facebook page, Twitter account, or official website.
“It makes you question if Google is doing the best thing for the searcher or the best thing for Google,” Sullivan said.
Of course, Facebook keeps its information from Google searches. “We want users to have control over what personal content they can search for at Google. We don’t want third parties dictating to users what they can or can’t search for in Google,” Singhal said. “Based on the current policies at many social networks, users don’t have that control.”
“This is a really big gun pointed back at Facebook,” said Sullivan. “This may cause Facebook to say that now that Google has merged social and search, that’s what it needs to do as well.”
There’s also the collective issue of search that has existed. “Until now, search has largely been a common experience,” said Sullivan, noting Jon Stewart harping Rick Santorum’s ‘Google problem’, but if searches become more tailored and personal, “We might not actually see the same thing Jon Stewart sees anymore.”
Source: L.A. Times
