Personalized Search No Worky?
- By: kidmercury [privmsg - website] On 29th Nov 2005 In
Many people think so, but Findory.com's Greg Linden points to this research paper [pdf] by Raul Valdes-Perez that argues that personalized search is not as feasible or valuable as it may sound. Linden quotes some of the paper's arguments:
People are not static; they have many fleeting and seasonal interests.
The surfing data used for personalizing search is weak [compared to purchase data].
The user's decision to visit the page is based on the title
and brief excerpt (snippet) that are shown in the search results, not the whole page.Home computers are often shared among family members.
Queries tend to be short.
Linden's response is that personalized search only needs to be better than the alternatives, not perfect.
So the question remains: can search engines make personalization compelling and valuable enough?
Im not surprised
I never did like it, and that's got little to do with having to jump through the hoops either. I do wonder whether the average surfer can even be bothered even. Its all a lot of marketing BS. "Use our lovely personalised search, let us track your behaviour so we can put you into a box and sell ya stuff.."
Unless it becomes so sufficiently kiss arse cool and useful that you really can't live without it (which I doubt) or the bog standard search interface was irratingly crap (which i doubt again) then why should people sign up and use the damn thing.
Agreed, as it stands there is no reason why people should feel compelled to use the thing. I can't think of a single reason why I'd want them to know my surf habits. Im not thick, I know how to use a search engine. I don't want to be served up a set of serps or results based upon what some marketing person thinks I should or would want to be looking at.
All that said, I must confess, its a nice idea if your a compliant couldn't give a fucker.