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Google to Encrypt All Keyword Searches
- kkmickos 13y agoI'm pretty sure I still can see what people searched for when ending up on my site in Google Analytics. Or did I misunderstand something?
- SuperChihuahua 13y agoNo you can't! It says "(not provided)" in GA
- danmaz74 13y agoIt's not as accurate, but you can still get an idea about keywords traffic from Google using webmaster tools (Search Traffic -> Search Queries)
- iamben 13y agoAs I posted earlier. Not a solution, but maybe helpful for some: http://notprovidedkit.com http://notprovidedkit.com
- melange 13y agoWhy isn't google open with the data it collects? Surely that would be an easy step towards "organizing the worlds information and making it universally accessible".
- dynofuz 13y agobecause they want to make $$
- devx 13y agoUser privacy?
- ttctciyf 13y agoI know, it's almost as if they lied about their mission statement and it's really "maximize shareholder profit." This is really disturbing my worldview. You don't think other huge corporations might have mission statements that are really marketing tools aimed at disguising their profit motive and disregard for users? No! it's unthinkable. We must be missing something!
- walid 13y agoHaaaaaaaahahahaha! The Internet sure makes me laugh more than any human being. Screw those guys called friends.
- walshemj 13y agoOf course PPC ad users still get that data - Google transparent when it feels like it.
- runn1ng 13y agoI am not sure if I get the post right, but if you want to know what keywords people use when clicking on your website and/or seeing your website in search results (and on which average position you are with that keyword), and on which page they land the most often (and with which keyword), you can use Google WebMaster tools For free, for every website. https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
- sologoub 13y agoTrue, but I don't think there is a way to get this data in session and be able to get detailed funnel progression by keyword. That also limits dynamic content based on keywords.
- runn1ng 13y agoOh. OK. So the websites cannot "analyze me" as properly. I am OK with that.
- icebraining 13y agoGoogle still can, though.
- runn1ng 13y agoNot really... What parent said is that marketers cannot now measure funnel progression (I had to google that) by keyword. Google cannot do that, since it has no way of reading the server's data. (If the server doesn't have Google Analytics injected, of course.)
- RBerenguel 13y agoGoogle has its own funnel, with Analytics, AdSense and all its myriad other web properties. They can track and analyse users much more than specific companies. A simpler example would be that I would not know which keywords were driving people to my site (it's "learn to remember everything" or is "snickerdoodles recipe"?) A stupid question? In my case yes, but for a company, it's crucial to know. Not even for pinpointing users, just in broad terms, with relevant date data, landing page and some other goodies (which webmaster tools does not offer, and looks unlikely to offer in the future)
- programminggeek 13y agoWell this makes Google Analytics awfully pointless for what most people care about most of the time...
- jiggy2011 13y agoI believe google analytics does still track keywords because google add some JS to each page to track there. Kinda sucks if you run a competing tracking service though.
- dangrossman 13y agoGoogle Analytics doesn't have a special exemption. The keyword from secure Google searches shows up as "(not provided)" in the relevant reports.
- slig 13y agoSo if the site is secure (HTTPS) it can get the referrer and thus the keyword?
- dangrossman 13y agoNo, as Google does not include the keyword in the referrer either. They moved it from the query string to a hash tag, which is not part of the URL sent in the referrer header.
- ihsw 13y agoNot only that but they actively put in an intermediary redirect between the search results page and the destination, so that website owners will know they came from Google, but not the search term used.
- bsullivan01 13y agoLet's call what it is not about: user privacy. Adwords, that I guess gobbles most clicks on a lot of searches, still transmits the data. This is the latest from a desperate Google. Why is Google desperate? Virtually all their money is being made via ads, their original business plan. Asteroid mining and other BS "We're curing death" press releases aside, Google is dependent on adwords so they need to keep turning knobs to force sites to advertise. Their PE is 25+ so they need to show huge increase quarter to quarter to keep the scheme going. This month Google also made the Keyword Tool for advertisers only. And in another major coincidence after Page took over, Google has made major algo changes (Panda, Penguin) giving sites virtually no way to come back in ranking but that greatly improved Google's revenue. Shocking, huh? Of course they can advertise to make up for the lost traffic, like the sites that rank high (brands.) So do I have a smoking gun memo? Nope, but it doesn't take a genius to figure it out. Ever wondered why Wikipedia ranks #1 for "computer"? IMO, it has to do with forcing Dell, MS, HP and others to advertise and to increase clicks on ads. I doubt most people want to know what a "computer" is when searching Google on a computer. That Gmail "promotions tab"? Google attacking another free source of sales and marketing. P.S. I expect a gazillion down votes from you know who. I don't care.
- RobAtticus 13y agoFirst, I don't think we agree what desperate means. Desperate makes it sound like revenues are shrinking or something. Second, if your theory were true, why is Wikipedia not #1 for "laptop"? Wouldn't that be a more powerful keyword to force people to advertise for?
- bsullivan01 13y agoFirst, I don't think we agree what desperate means. Desperate makes it sound like revenues are shrinking or something. You do not know how Wall Street works on tech companies with high PE. Even a 10% increase might shave Google $200 off their share price. Second, if your theory were true, why is Wikipedia not #1 for "laptop"? Wouldn't that be a more powerful keyword to force people to advertise for? I have a feeling that the fastest Googler reading this is about to get a promotion thanks to your tip.
- ffrryuu 13y agoFinally, my router has a feature that shows what the user googled for, it's creepy.
- smonff 13y agoEncrypt all keywords and store it for later use...
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- belorn 13y agoWhen I grew up, the stores around me commonly had those voluntary questionnaires. Each include a bunch of questions that if I wanted to answer, provide the store with market research. Some times even, those stores include a small reward for answering - A chance to win a prize or simply a buck's worth of store credit. I don't see those anymore. I haven't been asked by a stranger to answer a few questions in years. Even the computer that the fast food restaurant had looks to be gone.
- codyb 13y agoHmm, it's been a while since I checked but last time I went to Dunkin Donuts they still had that "Get a free donut on your next visit by filling out yada yada yada" on the bottom of the receipt and CVS seems to frequently have contest offers for a small survey. Similarly Tops supermarkets used to have something like CVS's when I used to shop there as recently as a few months ago. Maybe it's only chains now?
- belorn 13y agoI haven't seen any lately, but it is good to hear that it lives one somewhere. I remember seeing survey around 2005 in a online store I commonly visited, but they stopped.
- yashkadakia 13y agoThat's great. Somebody wake me when they stop sharing the key with anyone who asks.
- powertower 13y agoDoes google show the keywords in Webmaster Tools?
- menegattig 13y agoWhat about Chango (http://www.chango.com/ http://www.chango.com/)? Most part of their revenue comes from Search Remarketing...
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- ComputerGuru 13y agoReally, this isn't news and should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that's looked at their keyword metrics anytime in the past year. This graph (all search traffic plotted against keyword-not-provided) speaks for itself: https://neosmart.net/blog/2013/google-search-encrypted-traffic-not-provided/ https://neosmart.net/blog/2013/google-search-encrypted-traff...
- PhasmaFelis 13y agoIs this guy actually complaining that Google is taking measures to increase user privacy? Or am I being too cynical/not cynical enough? 'Cause my knee-jerk response is "Dear Marketers, This is why people hate you."
- walid 13y agoI'm not a marketer but this is a matter of knowing what people want so that they, marketers or their businesses, know what to work on making and selling. It isn't really a privacy issue since Google does track you and know who you are even if you are not signed in.
- PhasmaFelis 13y ago"Google tracks my every move" is more privacy than "Google tracks my every move and lets advertisers know too."
- sullivandanny 13y agoThe marketers are the ones savvy enough to understand that Google has deliberately continued to leave a gaping hole in that privacy protection for its paid advertisers. Buy ads; you get the data. So it's increased privacy until it hits Google's bottom line. Then, it's not.
- chestnut-tree 13y agoIf Google cares about about user privacy, why do they prefix every search result link with their own URL? Clearly the HTTP referrer header isn't enough for them. They want to capture even more tracking data (even from the tiny minority of users with referrer header switched off). Forget trying to copy and paste a URL from their search page. Given how lax they've been over deleting wi-fi data (promising to delete data and then failing to do so), it's hard to take their offical statements on privacy seriously. Their reach over online browsing behaviour is simply pehenomenal - greater than any other online company and yet their privacy policy is as vague as it possibly could be. This, for example, is from their Google Analytics privacy statement "Google Analytics does not report the actual IP address information to Google Analytics customers. Additionally, using a method known as IP masking, website owners that use Google Analytics have the option to tell Google Analytics to only use a portion of the IP address, rather than the entire IP address, for geolocation." Notable by omission is what Google do with the anlaytics data themselves, they presumably capture (and save) the full IP address as well as all the tracking data from the site using Google Analytics. http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/analytics/privacyoverview.html http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/analytics/privacyoverview...
- signed0 13y agoWhile I wish Google would stop doing this, for now there are extensions that will replace the URLs in search results with the actual ones. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/undirect/dohbiijnjeiejifbgfdhfknogknkglio https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/undirect/dohbiijnj...
- chestnut-tree 13y agoJust to add...DuckDuckGo also use re-directs in their search results. Unlike Google, they clearly explain their reasons: https://dukgo.com/blog/https-on-by-default https://dukgo.com/blog/https-on-by-default
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- knodi 13y agoLet go a head and say this. Fuck you marketers. Thank you Google.
- dil8 13y agoMaybe I am cynical, but this seems more like a 'user privacy' PR stunt than Google actually caring about user privacy.
- walid 13y agoNah, I think this is how Google is trying to make it less visible how they rank and what people search for. If you consider how Bing is gaining ground and that Yahoo may be inclined to build their own search engine and that such competitors can legitimately get Google based data from other sources easily by buying it, you'll want to hold your trade secrets close to the chest.