To some observers, two of Google’s latest moves — the personalized home page and My Search History — help answer the company’s need to know more about its users. (I’ll add the flawed Web Accelerator to the list.) Not only can personalization make it possible to target beyond keywords, it can help Google deliver better results and improve the search engine’s standing with users.
Interesting stats from comScore MediaMetrix via the NYTimes: My Yahoo users account for 23 percent of all Yahoo visitors; 49 percent of total time spent and 51 percent of pages viewed.” Yahoo is more into stickiness as a desirable trait than Google, which likes to be thought of as tetherball rather than a fly-trap. (When you hit the ball, it moves away but always comes back.) But personalized ads plus personalized content equal too much potential profit for me to think Google will pass it up for long.
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