Personalized search is nothing new - Google started in 2005. However, Google has recently announced an innovation that fundamentally changes the impact of personalized search by introducing a new search method, called 'Search Plus Your World. This new feature allows you to search content that has been publicly or privately shared in addition to traditional public web content. For now, this means that you have to be logged into your Google account so that you can search through your Google Plus social network for relevant queries. While this may seem like a limited change, Google has expressed interest in partnering with Facebook, Twitter and Flickr to expand the scope of its personalized search. This new search type is live but will roll out over the next week or so, which may means that you will have to wait to test it out. You will know that you have an option to test this search type when a pop up displays that looks like this :
Once you have the ability to use this search, You can toggle between Search My World search and traditional search.
This should bring you to a (perfectly?) personalized SERP (Search Engine Reult Page), based on content that has been shared with you.
What I find interesting is how this innovation will affect businesses. If there weren't already a strong case for the importance of social media, now there is no question that it imperative for businesses to build social relationships, especially using the often ignored Google Plus platform. Our company has responded to this new development by creating supporting social media strategies.
Published on Jan 23, 2012
