*** Google *IS* Watching You Now More Than Ever ***

Recently - and very quietly - Google rolled out its new 'Personal Search for Everyone' feature.

How kind right? WRONG!

Now Google is tracking your online searching for the previous 180 days using an 'anonymous cookie' and with that data, they're delivering unto you more relevant and targeted advertising - uh, sorry ... meaningful content

Here's the link to the official Google blog post about it:

googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/personal...ch-for-everyone.html

Quite frankly it's causing a major sh*tst*rm in the SEO world. It's got people running scared screaming "the sky is falling, the sky is falling!"

And it may well be for some. "Personal search for all" means instead of getting results per-se from some centralized aggregated uber-hub of indexed content, you're now going to get content skewed to what you've shown an interest in before.

Awesome this is not. For when I search, I look for answers that I do not know, and for information that I've never found. I'm not interested in incrementally different "same old, same old" content.

Also, if you're a "shmo" that does not know how to search, you will create a 180 day history of random stumbles and frustrated finds. And guess what ??? Google will assume this is intentional and use this pattern to colour your next search. Duh.

This shift in cyberspace is so new the after shocks are still happening. I'll check back in with more once I find it. Sadly if I keep looking with Google's new personalized search, I worry all I'll find is more of the same