Paradox of Personalized Search

Last Friday, Google announced yet another change they’ve made to the search engine- Personalized Search. The idea of this new feature is to enable users to obtain the most relevant search results based on their search history. For example, if I look up “NYU,” www.home.nyu.edu would appear at the top of my list because I click on it so frequently. This is done through an anonymous cookie that is linked to one’s browser to ensure maximum relevance and precision. This feature was previously offered to users that are signed into their Google account, but the company has decided to extend this luxury to signed-out users, in more than forty different languages.

However, Personalized Search has received criticisms from many- mainly about how Google is probing into people’s privacy by going through users’ search activities, and collecting their data. Before this, users had the option of retaining their privacy by not logging into their Google account while browsing the web, but now, Google can track down every single user, whether or not they are signed in.

Personalized Search- is it bringing search engines to a whole new level with results tailored to suit the queries of users? Or are users losing their trust in the internet, having to limit their online activity to protect their privacy? Is the internet acting as a bridge to connect people with the infinite realm of the cyber world, or is it in fact limiting their agency to explore?