Google is playing with personalized search
Google is playing with personalized search. Which everyone thinks is the future, but it needs to be more passive than this.
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Reader comments
PeterMar 29, 2004 at 11:03AM
there's not even a Canada region. or a North America for that matter.
Adam van den HovenMar 29, 2004 at 11:47AM
I was just about to make the same comment. Mind you this is just a beta so I suspect that as time goes on, they'll add a lot more categories.
A great feature would be to allow us "common folk" to recommend new categories. This way we have a more useful shared personalization.
djMar 29, 2004 at 12:05PM
if it automatically indexed your orkut profile, would that be passive enough? Or should it accrue information (via the toolbar) as you surf?
AndyMar 29, 2004 at 2:00PM
"Sorry, Google Personalized does not currently support Safari."
Everybody loves browser dependencies!
CarinaMar 29, 2004 at 2:35PM
Of course, Google waits until after you've given them the personal profile before revealing that your browser is rejected.
TimMar 29, 2004 at 4:32PM
this strikes me as all wrong. how is this personalization? it's an interesting toy, but it boils down to directory style fitlering. And the categories are almost useless. i was imagining saving info on searches and links clicked, user ranking of results, and expanding to the same functionality over a network of friends or trusted users.
Can I pull up my search results for a typeface I searched for 3 weeks ago? It doesn't have to be all of them, just show me the ones I clicked on. Can I mark a site as marketing spam and have it never shown in my results again? Can I see a list of the sites about social networking my friend Aaron thinks are relevant?
AdrianRMar 29, 2004 at 6:12PM
Just way too crude at this stage, but an interesting idea. Reminds me of early speech recognition software; the concept is there, but the logistics of the execution are extremely underdeveloped, rendering it's purpose useless.
Mind you, it's the mistake (or beta) that has to happen. It takes a lot of dead ants to build a bridge.
CostasMar 29, 2004 at 6:14PM
This is a plug, but it's actually relevant: I've been developing a newsbot that does passive personalization for 2.5+ years now. Personalization is done by watching your click-thrus or explicit ratings and those of other users. Kinda like Amazon recommendations meets Eurekster.
sarahMar 29, 2004 at 7:37PM
Can anyone expand on the ants-and0bridge metaphor? I'm not familiar with that one.
FirasMar 30, 2004 at 6:49AM
sarah: I think he just made it up.
KalebergMar 30, 2004 at 8:37PM
Google is off the mark on this one. My interests are extremely broad but I can usually tell if I am researching San Francisco hotels as opposed to K'Nex robotics. Maybe they want a combination of directory search and keyword search?
Personally, I loathe passive customization. I hate programs and systems that try to figure out what I want. I know what I want. This stuff does have a use. Amazon's recommendations are always good for a laugh when I need one.
Does any remember the pejorative adjective "dwimmy"? It comes from DWIM, "do what I mean". Basically it meant that if the computer didn't understand what you typed it would do something random. Spare us a return from those dark days.
CurtisMar 30, 2004 at 11:39PM
I may not be a member of the geekwazee (i.e. - I don't know crap about computers), but I LIKE it. The slider bar was groovy and I look forward to greater test driving.
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.