,
14 tweets,
3 min read
Read on Twitter
Over the years, a myth has developed that Google Search personalizes so much that for the same query, different people might get significantly different results from each other. This isn’t the case. Results can differ, but usually for non-personalized reasons. Let’s explore…
The assumption is that results have been customized in some way based on information unique to an individual, such as search history. FYI: we do not personalize search results based on demographic profiles nor create such profiles for use in Google Search...
Personalization doesn’t happen often & generally doesn’t dramatically change search results from one person to another. It is usually so lightly applied that the results are very similar to what someone would see without personalization…
Anyone who wants to test how lightly personalization is applied can easily check this themselves. Do a search in a fresh “Incognito” or similar private browsing window & you’ll have no account-based activity that is used. You can compare to a regular search…
Anyone who doesn’t want personalization using account-based activity can disable it using the Web & App Activity setting. You can also choose to keep your search history stored but exclude Chrome and app activity…
myaccount.google.com/activitycontro…
myaccount.google.com/activitycontro…
As said, personalization doesn’t dramatically change results. So why might two different people searching for the same thing see results that are different? That’s often due to non-personalized reasons: location, language settings, platform & the dynamic nature of search…
One of the most common reasons results may differ between people involves localized results, when listings are customized to be relevant for anyone in a particular area. Localization isn’t personalization because everyone in the same location gets the same results…
Localization is extremely useful in making results more relevant. For example, people in the US searching for “football” do not generally want UK football results, and vice versa. People searching for “zoos” in one area often want locally-relevant listings…
Another reason results may differ is when they are customized to be relevant for anyone searching in a particular language. This also isn’t personalization because everyone gets the same language results…
As with localization, language customization helps make results more relevant. Someone who searches in French generally wants information written in French. Similarly, those searching in English generally want information written in English….
Results might also differ slightly because of how dynamic & distributed our search system is. Our various data centers are constantly being updated with the latest information we have gathered from trillions of pages, along with our latest ranking improvements. But...
While we make changes as simultaneous as possible, some new or changed pages might not appear in all data centers immediately, or our latest ranking improvements may not have fully rolled out. These factors, not personalization, can create slight or brief differences in results…
Time is also a factor. Those who search a few hours or even minutes apart may see variations as new & updated material is added to our search engine. In particular, our “Top stories” section, which is never personalized, can change significantly in a short period of time...
Results may also differ slightly because of platform. On mobile, we prefer fast-loading, mobile-friendly pages, if content on those is as good or better than desktop versions. If you’re using Android or iOS, we may list apps that are appropriate for the respective devices.
