Now We Need To Create Another Google Profile?
from the too-much-in-the-open... dept
So, after creating "profiles" at various social networking sites - including Google's own Orkut - they expect us to all go in once again and happily create yet another profile so they can do personalized searches? Is it just me or is this the sort of thing that they should be working out on their own - or letting people designate a public profile that all these services can work off of? I'm also not convinced that such explicitly ranked personalized search is all that useful, either. I think search is personalized each time it's done based on what the user is looking for and the keywords they choose. What if one time I'm interested in looking at "bass" guitars, and the next time I want to read about "bass" fishing? I'm pretty likely to include the related keywords to make it clear. I don't know that I'd want to designate one as "more likely to be me". Instead, I'd prefer that Google look at my past searches (and perhaps a public profile) and take a guess - with a clear explanation. So, at the top, it could say "based on the info we know about you, we think you're looking for bass guitar info... if you're looking for bass fishing or Bass, the shoe company, click on these other links".
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
irrelevance?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Poorly implemented feature
This is all part of postulating a believable and enjoyable user scenario which doesn't seem to have been done for this feature.
[ link to this | view in thread ]