Personalised Search. The Future of Search Engines?

It is a very exciting time for us search engine marketeers with new types of data being made accessible for search purposes. The major thing to restrict search is the data availability. Once a piece of data is tagged with meta data it can be found. This was abused early doors for search engine marketeers by keyword stuffing the meta tags. So, the search engines had to get more clever and use relevancy as an indicator of the quality of a web page. The search engines are forever coming up with algorithms to improve search results in terms of relevancy which in turn drives their high income PPC business model. Therefore, the more the engine know about the user the more targeted traffic it can drive to you but also the more relevant adverts it can serve you.

Google has been talking about personailised search for quite some time. In the next few years i think we will start to see 'related' websites from a search query. For example, if you queried 'Gigs in Huddersfield*' i don't think it would be unreasonable to start seeing websites regarding the following.

• Bands in Huddersfield (related websites)
• Band Venues in Huddersfield (Sponsored listings)
• Guitar shops in Huddersfield (Related products)
• Band Insurance (Sponsored listings)
• Music Clothing Stores in Huddersfield (Related products)
• Music Reviews from Huddersfield (News sites)
• Alternative Results (Similar queries in nearby towns)

Now, imagine that all our browsing and purchasing habits are captured and stored by the engines - rather like what happens with Amazon when you are offered 'Books you may be interested in' next time you log in. Obvisoulsy, this will require extreme trust from the major search engines and would be a spammers dream should any data be lost (and lets be hinest, with so many UK polititions leaving their laptops on the underground is it such a problem anyway?). However, if we are confident that by releasing some personal data about ourselves then the search engines may use the information in a beneficial way. The search engines will know information about us and make assumptions about our lifestyle, interests, disposable income all from previous purchases and feed us relevant results accordingly. Google will also pick up data about where you live from you IP address and previous search history and serve more localised results. The search engines know that we like doing our food shopping from Tescos so it suggests that when we perform a search that a special offer from Tescos, ASDA and Morrisons are included but the high end stores like Marks and Spencers and Waitrose are not.

I think we will start to see a rise in personalised search soon from the major search engines. They have been trying to puch it out for a while now but with limited success. 2009 may just be the year?

*Huddersfield - a town in the North of England which is located directly in the centre of the known Universe.