The Newest Thing in Search
The next big thing in the evolution of search is the establishment of an individual's intent as they go about their search. If a search engine were to know something about me, what I do for a living, my hobbies, interests, and so forth, it could filter its results, putting information that is more relevant to me at the top. The words I use in a search, though they're the exact same words as someone else's search, could have different results because of the difference in our intentions. If Google gets to know something about me as an individual, it can give me tailored results.
Right now in Google the number one result for the word "records" is The Guinness Book of World Records. Tower Records is listed as number two, followed by a series of record labels. The British National Archives holds number eight. But if Google knew that I was a database programmer (which I'm not) and that I had been researching databases lately, it might skip right over Guinness and Tower and instead list Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM. What's more, if Google knew that I frequented php.net and opensource.org (which I don't) it might put MySQL.com (an open source database) at the top of the database sites. My personal profile would factor into its relevance system and deliver customized results.
Once this starts happening there will be no such thing as "number one in Google," but rather, number one in Google for me. Guinness can boast all he wants at his number one spot in Google for "records," but they won't be number one in my Google.
The Future is Today
Guess what? The ability to have your Google results personalized to our own search engine fingerprint is here today. Just go to Google and sign up for personalized search, and the future begins today.
