I Google too... or iGoogle - that's the new name of personalized search services Google is announcing today - covered in detail on Google Blogoscoped. Here's some highlights of the coverage:
"...Still, Sep says they want to put the user in charge. For instance, Google makes personalization optional, Sep says, and you can pause the Web History feature (or remove specific items from the history). He goes on to mention that you can also export your Web History as RSS feed, giving the user more control over their data."
AJAX has made personalization easier to accomplish:
"..AJAX, which allows fluent page updates & client-server data exchange without having to reload a page, is one reason why Google has entered the customizable concept of Personalized Homepages, Jessica says. She goes on to say that content is changing on the web, and traditional web search wasn’t meant to answer the question “What do I want to see?”. This is one of the reasons why Personalized Homepage was created - to show you what you want to see."
Perhaps the most interesting development, for me, liking gadgets - is Google's new Gadget Maker:
"..
Jessica Ewing announces Google is going to release Gadget Maker today (claim: “no programming required”). There are 7 different types of gadgets that users can create with this tool. A new link at the bottom of your iGoogle page will allow you to access the Gadget Maker service. Jessica is showing the Framed Photo Gadget maker page (pictured above), walking us through how you would create a photo gadget. Once the gadget is created, you can invite other people to view & use the gadget, and make it publicly available for other people to view & use it.
The different types of “wizard” gadgets will cover:
- A Photo gadget (share a series of photos with others)
- GoogleGram gadget (allowing you to display a new greeting message to someone for every day for 7 days)
- Daily Me gadget (which will show what you’re currently doing, as well as quotes, what’s on your mind etc.)
- Personalized Countdown gadget
- A Personalized List (you can e.g. publish your own top ten list with this, Google says)
- YouTube video favorites gadget (pictured above, this gadget will let you create a YouTube channel to share)
- A “Free Form” gadget (an “all-purpose gadget that lets you meld text and image in any way,” Google says) "
Looks like Google is getting into Social Media in a big way with Gadget Maker.
And then the bombshell for SEO ... Personalized Pagerank for every person. Interesting ....
"..He suggests that Google wants to compute PageRank for every single person, so to speak. Sep explains that Google thinks of personalization in 3 parts:
- Search Your own stuff (like Google Desktop Search, Web History)
- Traditional (Pull) Search
- Push Search (like recommendations, iGoogle/ personalized homepage) .
I don't think it was explained how that's going to work
... iGoogle? I think I'm gonna vomit. We've had enough 'iGarbage' nonsense rammed down our throats for quite a few years now. I had previously thought Google was secure enough in their brandname to avoid jumping on the bandwagon, but sadly that apparently is not the case.
Depressing, really. I hope they have to sense to rectify this blunder quickly.
Posted by: G.B. | May 1, 2007 5:08 PM | Permalink to Comment