Within the world of search engine optimisation, personalised search has often got experts hot under the collar. You may be wondering what exactly it is and why there is some much debate centred around it.
What is it?
Personalised search is the service provided by Google and other search engines that remembers what you tend search for and the sites that you like to visit. Over time Google uses an algorithm specific to the sites that you favour and ranks them for you. For example, if you like to look at eBay often, then you may well start to see lots of eBay listings coming up on the results pages where perhaps in the past you would have seen other things.
How does it work?
This form of search is guided by a variety of factors and can vary according to the search engine you use. Some of these include the time you like to search, your internet history, stored cookies or the IP address of the PC or laptop you use. Most of the search engines use personalised search to some degree but Google offers it on a vast scale in comparison to others. On signing into Google you’ll find that your search history has been recorded indefinitely or to the last point you deleted it. When you have logged out the search history will date back up to 180 days. The impact for the search results is significant.
Bing works differently. It too records the search history but only up to 28 days’ worth. Bing also suggests search terms according to the past terms used.
At www.searchengineoptimisation.co.uk we offer a wide range of search engine optimisation services.
We keep our ears to the ground with everything internet-related as an SEO agency! There’s been a lot of buzz and hype about Internet Explorer 9, and we’re in agreement that it certainly is an impressive piece of kit – especially when compared against previous incarnations of what’s considered the world’s most-used and popular browser. 56 per cent of people globally use Internet Explorer, and though that’s an impressive figure, it’s not nearly as high as it used to be in early 2000.
Whoever wins the ‘browser wars’ will do so based on which platform they most prefer, and which one the public feels gives them the best service when browsing online. For all the ceremony of the Internet Explorer 9 launch, Mozilla’s Firefox 4 has managed to trump it in terms of downloads. Within the first 24 hours, Firefox 4 was downloaded over five-and-a-half million times – double the figures Internet Explorer 9 achieved upon release.
But that figure is still less than the downloads reached by Firefox 3 on its first day – over 8 million people plumped for Firefox’s third update on its release in 2008. Though Internet Explorer still has the lion’s share of the global browser market, other browsers are fast catching up. Firefox 4 doubling the amount of downloads for Internet Explorer 9 in the same space of time is a pretty big blow for Microsoft, as they’ve got high hopes that this update can stop the browser’s decline and win back those who have jumped ship.
The real winner though is the average web user. They now have more choice than ever before when they want to go online, with browsers capable of incredible speeds and fantastic customisation options. We’ll be keeping an eye on how the browsers perform as time goes on – you can keep updated with their progress through our search engine optimisation blog!
