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People don't hate personalized search, they hate not knowing what's going to happen with the information. Personally, I love how convenient it is for Google to

People don't hate personalized search, they hate not knowing what's going to happen with the information. Personally, I love how convenient it is for Google to know as much as it does about me. But I then have to begrudgingly trust that they "won't be evil" with that information. It's a tradeoff, and I like to think that most people understand it as such.

r00fus 15y ago
That's one concern. Another is that "how do I know that you hid stuff I would really have preferred to see?" The idea behind seamless personalized search requires some information hiding or re-arrangement, and I think people aren't so happy with that idea.
- JoshTriplett 15y ago
  Exactly. I already know that Google utterly fails at "autocorrecting" my search terms, because invariably the autocorrect note at the top just means I need to add more "quotes" to force the search I wanted in the first place. Given that, I don't have much confidence in personalized search results either. Beyond that, I also find value in knowing how the results and rankings look in general, and that value goes away if the results and rankings become specific to me.
  - joe_the_user 15y ago
    Indeed, Google actually often succeeds in giving me good alternative suggestions but when it fails to even consider a search for a programming keyword, automatically only searching for a common search term, it is so infuriating that their successes are forgotten.
maggit 15y ago
I'm a person, and I hate personalized search exactly because of what personalized search is. I don't want to live in a filter bubble. If I search for my name, I obviously want to know what other people would see about me. The same goes for any kind of ego-searching (my software projects, for example) If I search for "where to buy x", I want to see where Google thinks it is best to buy x, regardless of the fact that I am in Norway. Regardless of who I have in my G+ circles. If I want to narrow the search, I can do it myself. Even when I search for "mono", I want to be reminded that the world largely thinks mono means mononucleosis, not the mono compiler and runtime. I am part of the world, dammit, and I don't want Google to go out of their way to avoid showing me that world. I also hate Google's hoarding of information about me, but this hate is completely orthogonal.
- spurgu 15y ago
  Open an incognito window?
  - maggit 15y ago
    As a matter of fact this causes google.com to take me to google.no, contrary to what my settings say (that are active when I'm not in an incognito window). This is also independent of what my browser language preferences are. I'm not exactly sure if this poisons my search results or not, and I am too tired to look into it right now. But it still makes me worry that I'm seeing skewed search results. Additionally, it is of couse extra work to open an incognito window for every search, so this still means Google's attempt at tailoring the results for me causes me bother.
    - spurgu 15y ago
      I'm personally a fan of personalized search, oftentimes it feels like Google is reading my mind. Which also is what I assume they're aspiring to. However there are times when I need more generalized results and an incognito search seems to do just that, but I'm not surprised if there is some kind of filtering going on even then though.
- andylei 15y ago
  > I hate personalized search exactly because of what personalized search is i don't understand what your rant is about. just don't use personalized search; its a completely optional feature.
  - maggit 15y ago
    >> People don't hate personalized search > I hate personalized search That's what it's about. Just a counter example to a sweeping statement. Although, now it seems that "personalized search" might mean different things to different people; I'm not only talking about Search Plus Your World. I've had to go to extra trouble to get google to show me results not tweaked for Norway. I mean -- I still get to hate it if it is optional, as long as it is bothering me, don't I? :)
Gormo 15y ago
I do hate personalized search. When I search the internet, I'm usually looking for things I'm not already familiar with. Having my search results overwhelmed with stuff that I already know where to find is very frustrating. These days, I usually find myself spending most of my time in incognito mode, so that I can access the internet and not my own personal bubble.
herval 15y ago
I don't think most people actually care about what's going to happen with information (not even personal details, with a big exception being their credit card number) at all...

r00fus 15y ago

That's one concern. Another is that "how do I know that you hid stuff I would really have preferred to see?" The idea behind seamless personalized search requires some information hiding or re-arrangement, and I think people aren't so happy with that idea.

JoshTriplett 15y ago
Exactly. I already know that Google utterly fails at "autocorrecting" my search terms, because invariably the autocorrect note at the top just means I need to add more "quotes" to force the search I wanted in the first place. Given that, I don't have much confidence in personalized search results either. Beyond that, I also find value in knowing how the results and rankings look in general, and that value goes away if the results and rankings become specific to me.
- joe_the_user 15y ago
  Indeed, Google actually often succeeds in giving me good alternative suggestions but when it fails to even consider a search for a programming keyword, automatically only searching for a common search term, it is so infuriating that their successes are forgotten.

maggit 15y ago

I'm a person, and I hate personalized search exactly because of what personalized search is. I don't want to live in a filter bubble. If I search for my name, I obviously want to know what other people would see about me. The same goes for any kind of ego-searching (my software projects, for example) If I search for "where to buy x", I want to see where Google thinks it is best to buy x, regardless of the fact that I am in Norway. Regardless of who I have in my G+ circles. If I want to narrow the search, I can do it myself. Even when I search for "mono", I want to be reminded that the world largely thinks mono means mononucleosis, not the mono compiler and runtime. I am part of the world, dammit, and I don't want Google to go out of their way to avoid showing me that world. I also hate Google's hoarding of information about me, but this hate is completely orthogonal.

spurgu 15y ago
Open an incognito window?
- maggit 15y ago
  As a matter of fact this causes google.com to take me to google.no, contrary to what my settings say (that are active when I'm not in an incognito window). This is also independent of what my browser language preferences are. I'm not exactly sure if this poisons my search results or not, and I am too tired to look into it right now. But it still makes me worry that I'm seeing skewed search results. Additionally, it is of couse extra work to open an incognito window for every search, so this still means Google's attempt at tailoring the results for me causes me bother.
  - spurgu 15y ago
    I'm personally a fan of personalized search, oftentimes it feels like Google is reading my mind. Which also is what I assume they're aspiring to. However there are times when I need more generalized results and an incognito search seems to do just that, but I'm not surprised if there is some kind of filtering going on even then though.
andylei 15y ago
> I hate personalized search exactly because of what personalized search is i don't understand what your rant is about. just don't use personalized search; its a completely optional feature.
- maggit 15y ago
  >> People don't hate personalized search > I hate personalized search That's what it's about. Just a counter example to a sweeping statement. Although, now it seems that "personalized search" might mean different things to different people; I'm not only talking about Search Plus Your World. I've had to go to extra trouble to get google to show me results not tweaked for Norway. I mean -- I still get to hate it if it is optional, as long as it is bothering me, don't I? :)

Gormo 15y ago

I do hate personalized search. When I search the internet, I'm usually looking for things I'm not already familiar with. Having my search results overwhelmed with stuff that I already know where to find is very frustrating. These days, I usually find myself spending most of my time in incognito mode, so that I can access the internet and not my own personal bubble.

herval 15y ago

I don't think most people actually care about what's going to happen with information (not even personal details, with a big exception being their credit card number) at all...