The goal of personalized search engines is to provide results which cater to the individual person who conducts each search. Existing implementations of this concept require user registration, but it might also be accomplished by using browser cookies to keep track of the searcher’s interests. Read on to learn more about how this is accomplished, its potential implications, and the web sites which are currently offering personalized search features.

Google’s personalized search feature is integrated into its Web History system, which keeps track of the web sites users visit and the searches they perform. It then provides personalized results with the record of previous internet use as a basis. Members can choose to install a toolbar which records all web sites they visit, or just have it monitor the search keywords they use on Google.

Nsyght.com is another example of personalized search; it allows members to enter bookmarks or import them from social bookmarking services, then uses the member’s bookmarks to customize their results. Users can also “block” listings they aren’t interested in from showing up in their personalized results again. Nsyght has a very short registration form and does not use a toolbar.

One possible example might be that someone interested in radio communications would see police scanners in their personalized results when searching for “scanner”, whereas a person more interested in computers would see results pertaining to image scanners. Such a system could possibly divide the traffic from a particular keyword among a greater number of sites. If effective, it may also result in searchers entering fewer words to describe their searches, except when they are on subjects the user is not usually interested in.

Potential obstacles to the success of personalized search systems include privacy concerns and technical demands. Some internet users are likely to worry about having all of their searches and/or other online activity indefinitely stored by search engines. These systems must have the capacity to store a large amount of data on each user, which could dissuade smaller engines from adopting this concept.

Overall, personalized search is likely to provide searchers with results more relevant to them, except when they look for information on subjects they weren’t previously interested in. It also offers a way for engines to provide additionally user-targeted advertisements. If personalized searching becomes more widespread, it may complicate search engine optimization efforts because people will see different results depending upon their interests.

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