I am very interested in search technology Google systems, its development, so I watch them all the time. Including her new social network Google+. As you know, Google, first of all, tests all its new things on bourgeois search results.

And since Google, represented by AdWords, is the breadwinner of one of my sites, and the supplier of traffic to it, and also gives traffic to this one, then I am very interested in what is going on there in the West, because after a while, sure enough, all this will be to work already in Russian Google. In general, another observation from the blog of an interesting Western SEO specialist - Jacob Stoops. So, let's go.

In case you haven't noticed, Google has begun rolling out a new social search algorithm called “Search Plus Your World.” This new change, which will take a few days to take effect, brings clarity to Google's latest innovations - the launch of its social network and the rollout of encrypted search.

The socialization of Google search began back in 2009, and this adaptation has become a hidden trump card that can increase the power of the search engine, which will make the fight in social world with Twitter and Facebook more efficient.

Here's a short excerpt of what Google says about Search Plus Your World:

We are transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and their connections. The transformation began with social search and today we are taking another major step in this direction by introducing 3 new properties:

1. Personalized results that allow you to see only the information you need, such as Google+ photos and posts from both yours and the people you follow. There will be nothing superfluous on the search results page.

2. Profiles in search – the function is automatic and allows you to see profiles of people close or interesting to you on the search results page.

3. People and Pages – allows you to find profiles of people or Google pages+ related to your interests. You can follow them in just a couple of clicks.

These three features together create Search Plus Your World. Searching is easier and better with your world in it. There's more to come.

Amit Singhal, who oversees Google's algorithms, said in an interview with Danny Sullivan:

Social search algorithm, personal search algorithm and personalized algorithm have now become one combined algorithm. We find it very pleasant and useful

Personal results

At the top of the search results page, users can see new icon personalization that displays relevant posts and pictures from the user’s circle of friends on Google+

Another screenshot of Search Plus Your World in action:

As you can see, users are given the option to switch between personalized and non-personalized results. The main thing here is that Twitter and Facebook drop out of the search completely.

Here's what Amit Singhal thinks about this: “Facebook, Twitter and other services do not allow our search robots to view their content. Google+ is the only network that is open to search. Of course, if other services revise their privacy policies, we will meet them halfway and consider using them in search.”

From this point of view, it is clear that Google does not rule out plans to include content from social giants in search.

ProfilesGoogle+ in search

Another new feature of Search Plus Your World is the way Google+ profiles are displayed on the SERP.

People logged into Google+ can see their profile and friends directly in the search field

Miranda Miller's take on Search Engine Watch:

This search engine feature can be very convenient for both the average user and the masses. These results are extremely relevant, especially when things like SEO are taken into account. It will be interesting to see how Google handles complaints about content generated by other users.

Google can also suggest other people to users by performing autocomplete searches on Google+ profiles. People will be able to add the user they like to their circles with one click directly on the search results page. This option will work based on the markup of the author's profile on the search results page, which Google launched at the end of last year.

Here's what it will look like in action:

OffersPeople& Page(People and Pages)

When the search engine feels that people's and page's suggestions are relevant, then it will display them with right side issue pages. Here's what it might look like:

Danni Sullivan about this feature:

This is a great promotion for Google+ (and once again proves why marketers can't ignore Google+). But there are still a lot of people on Facebook and Twitter. Google must find such people and show them to searchers on the search results page, and this is the job of a search engine.

But they won't get that promotion. Only Google+ gets this and I don't think it's quite right.

Overall, I like the integration where you have the ability to differentiate between private and public content. As I said before, this will prove useful to many.

I think additional privacy settings will be added, for example, the user should be able to choose between publishing material publicly and privately.

What I'd like to see most in the coming weeks is Google's integration with other social networks. Yes, there are things that Facebook or Twitter can ban and it will not be possible to reach an agreement on certain issues.

But even without such agreements, Google has many ways to promote these and other services. The methods may be the same as in the case of Google+ promotion. I'd like to see this soon.

Unprecedented Security

Google has shared with us some security mechanisms, including SSL search for logged in users:

When it comes to security and privacy, Search Plus Your World excels. Because some of the information you find in the search, including posts and private Google photos+, is well protected by SSL coding, we decided that the search results page should be protected at the same level. That year we became the leading search engine to use SSL in search. This means that when you're logged into Google, your search results page, including private content, is protected by the same high encryption standards used in Gmail.

We also want to be as transparent as possible about how our system works and we care about keeping you informed. The current changes provide interface elements and settings similar to Google+. For example, personalized results can be clearly marked as: Public, Restricted and For You Only. In addition to this, people in the search results are classified as Google+ circles, or may be in contact suggestions.

In addition, in the upper right corner of the search results page there is a button that shows what the result of your search will be without personalized content. Just one click and you can see non-personalized results.

This means you won't see anything from your friends, no private information, and no personalization in your Web Story http://support.google.com/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=54068 . This button works for an individual search session, but in the search settings there is an option to enable this feature by default. Search settings depend on various contextual cues, including location and language.

This is unprecedented transparency and control over personal search results y.

Some thoughts on SSL from Miranda Miller of SearchEngineWatch:

Although SSL provides an appropriate level of security, secure personalized SERPs and their Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) history could fall into the hands of government agencies, just as happened with by email. We already discussed last year that civil servants can request and use personal data emails without warning the user or any reason.

Between July and December 2010, Google received 4,600 requests to access personal data through courts, search warrants and the ECPA bill. As a result, 94% of the requirements were met.

Amit Singhal on SSL:

We worked on this protocol for a whole year, we had to try hard to get it to work perfectly. After all technical issues were resolved, we launched it to the masses

Despite correct work SSL, debates and criticism from SEOs do not fade away on the Internet. With the recently introduced SOPA bill and other government interventions in the internet environment, this concept can be quite beneficial to users. But, from an SEO point of view, this will cause the loss of some referral data on request. According to Google, at the first stage they will not exceed 10% of the total number of search queries, but according to my observations, losses can reach 20-30%.

Personalization by default

Google has decided to use personalized search as a default setting.

Amit Singhal explained why they did this:

I think that this type of search is a new experience, a more advanced algorithm that will help provide high-quality search results

If you want to opt out of personalized search results, you'll have to dig into your settings. It is also possible to use a special button with the image of a planet in the right corner, which allows you to hide personal results.

Although personalized delivery will be the default, an important aspect remains the possibility of choice, which has not been a priority in development since 2009. Thus, personalization of search results is becoming the new “norm”.

Danny Sullivan has a great point about this “norm”:

Of course, it is a mistake to assume that such a presentation of information will lead to good search results. The search engine will be able to identify personalization factors such as your web browser history, your search history, or social connections.

But geographic focus, which can be truly significant, will produce results. First of all, the search algorithm will be based on the query language. Google will use these contextual signals on a geographic and language basis, which are not linked in any way to personal data.

The situation with Google+ and 100 million users is very interesting. If most of them are active participants, then they must be logged in. This means that “normal” search results are personalized results. Registered users can take advantage of all the benefits of personalized search, a new standard; those who are not yet registered cannot and are doomed to use an outdated algorithm.

Now you need to log in to your account and monitor changes in search results. It will be very interesting to see the impact of a personalized approach to search, as well as the response of the two social giants Twitter and Facebook.

Google Search Plus Your World. And thus, it offered users a more personalized approach to the information search process. The new approach is that users can include so-called “personal results” in search results, which allow them to obtain data about what users of the company’s services write about the subject of the Internet search. For example, if you type the word “vacation” in a large Google search, in the search list you will find, first of all, offers from travel agencies, while in social search the list of results will contain reviews and reports of your friends about their vacations.

In this case, access to the results is provided only if the user-authors themselves have opened access to the data, or if the user is looking for information among members of their circles on Google+. Currently, “personal results” are taken from the Google+ social network and Picasa catalogs. New opportunity For now it only works on the English version of the search engine. And by the way, the old version of searching for information has also been preserved. And at any time the user can disable social search.

Interestingly, the IT community disapproved of Google's new product, accusing the company of distorting search results and aggressively putting pressure on users to visit Google+ more often. According to a Wired journalist, the introduction of social search is another blow against the social network Facebook. The company also responded to information about the new feature Google search.

"Twitter's profiles and posts are important sources of up-to-date information on the Internet. We are concerned that Google's changes will make them harder to find, and everyone will lose," the company said in a statement.

“Each of the social networks, no matter how much they blame Google now, Facebook, for example... Facebook has been trying to launch its own internal search for a long time, and in general social networks strive to keep users within themselves. It’s just that Facebook has not yet been able to launch social search within itself. “Everyone is talking about this, everyone is striving for this,” says the creator of Liveinternet.ru German Klimenko. “The question of whether Google is crossing the line here in suppressing other competitors at its own expense, we will leave that to the court. But the fact that this is logical, in general, and will most likely lead to the fact that Google network+ will be very close to rival Facebook, that's obviously enough."

Some analysts have stressed that Google's aggressive new attempt to promote Google+ using its dominant position in the Internet search market could interest antitrust authorities. According to rumors, documents are already being prepared for a major investigation into Google. US regulators are believed to suspect Google of favoring its own services like Youtube and Google when ranking search results. Google Maps. However, there was no official confirmation of this information.

What is the System custom search Google?

To make it easier for your site visitors to find the information they need, add a Custom Search Engine to your site, developed based on Google algorithms. Our proven technologies will provide users with high-quality, relevant results. In the Custom Search System you can:

• customize the external search box and results pages to match the style of your site;
• refine search results, use autocomplete, and promote results to improve the search experience for users;
• analyze visitor behavior by linking SPP with Google Analytics;
• earn money by participating in the Google AdSense program.

How is Custom Search different from Google Web Search?

The custom search engine can be used to search for information throughout the Internet, similar to Google.ru. However, there are also differences. Your WPS:

• gives results from your site higher priority;
• does not support some, such as personalized results;
• can show the user only a part of the total number of results in the Google index if the search is conducted on more than 10 sites.

An educated person is one who knows where to find what he does not know.

Georg Simmel

The founders of each search engine set themselves the task of not just creating a search engine, but a service that can predict all the thoughts and desires of the user and find a complete and relevant answer to his question the first time. The path to its implementation is long and thorny! And as we see, today not a single search engine in the world has been able to create such a perfect algorithm to answer all user requests with 100% accuracy the first time. You can spend many years looking for a solution, however, recently the trend of personalization of search results has firmly established itself in the search world. Indeed, why guess what the user wants if the desires of the majority differ. You can’t please everyone, but you can please individual people very much, Google decided and was the first search engine to conduct “ personalized revolution" What it was, and what consequences await users and optimizers, we will look at in this article.

First attempts

Google made its first attempt to personalize search results back in 2007. Then the search engine invited users to mark how relevant the resource is in the results using the appropriate emoticons in the toolbar.

Blocking pages in SERP

The idea of ​​arranging stars and ratings never caught on. In 2011, Google took a fundamentally new path: why ask users to vote for their favorite sites when you can simply remove irrelevant resources from the search results!

As a result, the search engine launched the function blocking pages in SERP. The function was first implemented in browser form Google Chrome. Using this extension, the user could remove sites from the search results that were not relevant to the specified request. In the future, these sites will be included in individual SERP given user no longer showed up. The user received a unique search result, and Google received free assessors, because all data about blocked sites was sent directly to the search engine specialists.

Some time later, this extension was transformed into a search engine, and all logged-in Google users could block sites and change the results to their taste. In the fall, the innovation will be available to users in most countries.

According to Google, data on blocked sites in currently collected and will be taken into account when ranking in the future. How exactly is not yet said. But it has already been said more than once that using this information, Google will be able to clear spam from search results and improve its quality.

+1 button

The idea of ​​users voting for their favorite sites never left Google. At the end of March 2011, a search engine appeared in the search results, which allowed users to mark the sites they liked directly in the search results. At first, this feature was only available to logged in users. However, already in the summer of 2011, all Google users could see how many “pluses” a particular site received in the search results. A little earlier, the +1 button became available for installation on third-party sites.

With the introduction of the +1 button, each user's output receives an element of individuality. After all, in addition to the number of +1 marks, the user sees who from his contact list and Google+ friends rated this site. And following their recommendations, choose the most suitable result in the search results.

Thus, Google once again replenished its army of assessors who helped it improve the quality of search. However, the search engine did not tell in detail how exactly the information about the “pluses” of users will be used. The only thing he mentioned is that all data will be tested and only then added to the ranking formula in order to improve the quality of the SERP.

However, Google still allowed webmasters to learn about the effect of the +1 button on the site. In the summer, Google Webmaster Tools appeared, which reflects the impact of a button on the amount of traffic to the site and on the CTR of the site. For comparison, data on the CTR of a page with and without +1 comments is displayed. Additionally, the report shows geographic and demographic information about Google users who pressed the +1 button.

In addition, Google reported that the presence of a +1 button on a site will encourage more search robots to visit the site.

Search Plus Your World

The tendency to provide different results to different users has emerged in search engines a long time ago. However, in January 2012, Google went even further and offered users completely personalized search results, diluting the results with information from the Google+ social network. New feature was called “Search Plus Your World” and consisted in the fact that from now on the user was offered 2 types of SERP:

Despite the criticism, Google's version of personalized results is still a very significant step in the development of search. Of course, it is still far from perfect, and its usefulness and necessity are questioned by many. But I don’t think that many users perceive the innovation negatively - after all, they can always switch to regular version SERP.

If you personalize it, then that’s it, Google decided and began to remember the queries that users asked, so that they could later be displayed in suggestions. These queries are highlighted in the search suggestions block purple, and a Delete button appears next to them. Personally, it started working for me in mid-February, but, according to one of our readers, this situation has been observed for a couple of months now. No Google yet official statements I didn’t do this on this score.

What the experts say

I wonder how Google's personalized search will develop? We turned to leading SEO specialists with this question.

Leonid Grokhovsky, Director of Promotion Technology and Automation, Optimizm.ru:

Search personalization is an important step towards the development of search engines. As the social services and analytical systems, the amount of information from which search engines can draw conclusions about user needs will certainly only grow.

Here we cannot fail to mention the development trend behavioral factors, which are also based on user research. Many years ago, when search engines were just beginning to exist, it was not possible to take these factors into account, so search algorithms were forced to be developed on the basis of indirect signs that determine whether the page content matches the user’s needs. Today we are witnessing the beginning of a new era of search, which is based on real user data.

What does the future hold for us? The trend will continue to develop, but not as rapidly as many would like. The fact is that collecting, calculating and processing this data requires enormous power. Should we be afraid of this? It’s unlikely, because this trend takes us from spam to marketing.

Alexey Podymov, analyst, Ingate:

The direction is interesting and, undoubtedly, is designed to improve the quality of search in the eyes of the user. Yandex, as you know, is also experimenting with both search results and personalized search suggestions (except that it doesn’t have its own Yandex+ yet).

As a search engine user, I am, in principle, impressed by the ability to manageSERP’om - block sites, vote, recommend to friends. The main thing for a search engine is to maintain a balance between personalized and adequate results; for the user - not to be locked in his own little world - entering a request using a personal hint, visiting “his” previously marked sites, reading the posts of his friends... in such a situation, the Internet risks limiting each user to two to three hundred pages.

I think the direction of personalized search will be developed by leading search engines, including through increased interaction with social networks, because personalization is inextricably linked with social activity users. The day is probably not far off whenGooglehe will enter the request for you, he will choose required product, he will discuss it with your friends, make the order himself... you can only hope that he will pay for it himself :)

Elena Kamskaya, supervisor Seolib.ru:

I think, first of all, personalization will be made available for regional searches, including Google.ru. The next step will likely be mandatory personalization of search results - personalized posts will be mixed into the main results, regardless of whether the user wants it or not.

I also don’t rule out the possibility that Google will eventually find a common language with Facebook, and then one of next steps could be using Facebook data to personalize searches.

For me personally, as a user, I do not see the need for such “social” personalization. If I want to find out something from friends or acquaintances, I can do it without the help of a search engine. Therefore, I consider personalization based on user location data, like Yandex, much more successful. Now, for most queries in Yandex, each user receives links to companies that are located in his city. In the future, perhaps, links to companies that are located on the next street or in the next house will be shown - this will be a good personalized search.

The main task of systems that organize searches is to satisfy the user’s information needs as quickly as possible. Since the information need cannot be accurately determined from one request, it is necessary to study the user, store and analyze the history of his behavior. On the other hand, in some aspects, people trust more those results (sites or companies in the case of commercial queries) that are recommended to them by friends or with which they have had positive experiences interacting. Many global search experts agree that recommendation search is the best option.

In this regard, search giants, starting with Google, when developing their technologies, will move towards studying the preferences of users, as well as the preferences of those people whom these users trust, in most cases these are their friends. This is the main idea behind personalizing search results.

Accordingly, in personalized search we can expect closer interaction between search engines and social networks, where all social connections are stored. At the same time, “+1” and “like” will not have a strong influence on the overall search, since this will be taken into account as recommendations from strangers whom we do not necessarily trust. It is difficult to say how Google's personalized search will develop; it will collect data about us and, based on it, give us its answers to our questions. As for the interface, it shouldn’t change much; it already has everything necessary information for decision making (photos of authors, links to friends’ profiles, etc.).

Search technologies do not stand still. As we can see, Google has long chosen the direction for the development of its own search and diligently follows it. The search engine is confident that personalized results are the most accurate and relevant. And if, over time, Google decides that search results should be exclusively personalized, most SEOs will only sigh in doom: after all, if half of the SERP is occupied by personalized posts, the competition for the remaining positions will seriously increase. But imagine how the CTR of the sites remaining in the TOP 10 could increase.

But it is too early to draw final conclusions. Personalized search is currently only available for google.com, which means this version It is currently being tested and tested, and in the future we can expect significant changes.

Personalizing Google search results

For a long time now, Google has been generating search results in accordance with the preferences of a particular user, by tracking his behavior after logging into Gmail account.

After it was introduced, there was talk that now clicks on it would greatly affect the results of sites. Those. On which pages this button was clicked more, those pages will rank better. It was quite difficult to verify this.

But over time it became clear that Google began to provide truly personalized search.

Previously, I didn’t pay much attention to this until I noticed something interesting yesterday:

Whether this is good or bad, time will tell.

Video from Google itself about personalized search:

Also look at this Google thread:

• - video.
• — translation of the official manual.

P.S. Immediately after this post went up, the position on the request “Competent selection keywords"fell from 11th to 20th. What an irony of fate...