On December 4, Google announced that search results would be personalized for all Google users. What does this mean, and what is its impact on SEO?
From Google’s blog:
Previously, [Google] only offered Personalized Search for signed-in users, and only when they had Web History enabled on their Google Accounts. What we’re doing today is expanding Personalized Search so that we can provide it to signed-out users as well. This addition enables us to customize search results for you based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in your browser. It’s completely separate from your Google Account and Web History (which are only available to signed-in users). You’ll know when we customize results because a “View customizations” link will appear on the top right of the search results page. Clicking the link will let you see how we’ve customized your results and also let you turn off this type of customization.
The Google blog link above is worth reading, and links you to additional details, in addition to instructions for turning off personalization. However, we can anticipate that very few people will turn off this feature; search engine optimization must assume that from now on, different people will have different search results.
