http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/11/holding_google.html The Law, the Universe, and Everything Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:15:22 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.3 hourly 1 http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/11/holding_google.html/comment-page-1#comment-51498 James Grimmelmann Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:05:34 +0000 http://www.solove.org/archives/2007/11/holding-google-to-its-own-standards.html#comment-51498 I continue to believe that personalization, as practiced today, is not a significant competitive advantage in the search business. Far and away the most useful "personalization" of search results is inherent in the response to a search query. The data engines gather on users is valuable in the aggregate to know what users in general like and dislike, but ad-targeting and results-generation by query is still far more effective than ad-targeting and results-generation based on long-term past behavior. The user histories are valuable not in search but in third-party ad networks. I continue to believe that personalization, as practiced today, is not a significant competitive advantage in the search business. Far and away the most useful “personalization” of search results is inherent in the response to a search query. The data engines gather on users is valuable in the aggregate to know what users in general like and dislike, but ad-targeting and results-generation by query is still far more effective than ad-targeting and results-generation based on long-term past behavior. The user histories are valuable not in search but in third-party ad networks.

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