How Does My Search Engine Know Me So Well?

How is it that Google knows where you live when you do a search for "pizza"? Or knows you just can't seem to get enough PajamaJeans? Or why do those ads seem to be things I've searched for before? Well, it's time to expose the 'wizard behind the curtain' and explain how your search engine knows you so well.

Major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing all strive to create a personalized user-experience when searching. Just like any other business, they want to please their customers. The way that they collect your personal data is broken down into 3 categories.


Location
Type “pizza” into Google; what does your results look like? Most likely the first results Google pulled are pizza places near your town. National brands like Dominos and Papa John’s will usually appear at the top of the search. But how does Google know where you live? Easy, it uses the IP address from computer to determine your location. If using a smart phone, your GPS location is used. Google knows that when most people search for things like “pizza” or “dry cleaner” they are looking for local results, even if they didn’t search using localized keywords.

Search History
As referenced in my earlier article, Spyware and Lawn Gnomes, what you do on the Internet is tracked for marketing purposes. They know where you’ve been, how you search, and what you look at online. It may sound a lot like 'Big Brother', but knowing your search history means that Google, Yahoo, and Bing can deliver results that you are more likely to find useful and interesting.

Social Media Information
In 2011, Bing and Facebook teamed up to enhance Bing’s search results. The Bing-Facebook integration allowed users, who were signed into Facebook, to see what websites their social connections had Liked and Shared in Facebook. Some pages would actually rank better when a user was logged in to Facebook than they would normally, just because that person’s social network had 'Liked' it. 

Google has created their version of the Like button with the +1 for Google+. When a user is logged into their Google account, they can publicly +1 a webpage they like. The +1 will show up in their Google profile, and their profile image will be placed next to the +1 button.

Facebook has now decided to take on Google with their new search engine, Facebook Graph Search. With Facebook Graph Search, the objects we search for aren’t Web pages, but instead virtual representations of real world objects: people, places and things. The connections are primarily Facebook Likes. Did such-and-such a person like a particular photo? A particular doctor? A particular restaurant? Those likes are the ties that bind the information in Facebook together. Although still in beta, it has taken social trend data to a whole new level. 

How to Get Your Privacy Back
Perhaps you don't want your search history tracked. There are options. CNET has a great article on opting-out from Google tracking.

How to Prevent Google From Tracking You  

Reputation.com also has a great article on online privacy.

Blocking Internet Ad Tracking and Maintaining Your Online Privacy 
 

Some might debate this technology is taking the "fun" out of searching online because it narrows the search results drastically. In many ways choosing what you do and do not see. Others say personalized search results provide more valuable information to users. It reduces the clutter and focuses on what the user really wants. Either way, it's all about YOU now. What you want, need, or will need. Now it's time for me to continue my search for PajamaJeans for men!

All product and company names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.

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