Personalized Search Through Google S+YW

About a year ago Google introduced what they called “Search Plus Your World” (S+YW). S+YW is a big upgrade to the personalization of search that Google had been ramping up since at least 2007.

Have a look at  the Video What Google offers with “Search, plus Your World”:

S+YW works on the simple assumption that people you have in your Google contacts (Gmail, Gchat, and now Google+ circles) and/or people who have you in theirs, are important to you in some way. Thus what they indicate is important or authoritative may be for you as well.

Simple Google search throws up the results which you don’t know how to make use of; which one you should trust and which one you should ignore.

Unlike, simple Google search, through S+YW personalization you get the results some of which habe been recommended by your friends. Little head-and-shoulders icon next to the recommended result tells you that this result has been elevated in rankings for you because of personalization.

S+YW vs Facebook Graph

Why Google S+YW is considered to be way ahead of Facebook’s new Graph Search in the recommendation engine game, and how it is doing personalised search better than Facebook’s Graph Search:

• Through Facebook’s Graph Search, you get the results which have been determined by what your friends have “Liked” on Facebook. But a Facebook Like often does not mean what we mean by “like” in real life. People “like” a business on Facebook for all sorts of reasons.
• People don’t think of using Facebook to search with commercial intent. They are on it primarily to keep up with family and friends and be entertained.
• Google has made billions on its search-based advertising because it has cultivated and reinforced that it is the place to go when you’re ready to buy something.
• In January of 2011 Google put through a major update to their privacy agreement with users, making “one policy to rule them all.” This enables Google to better track your activity and relationships across all of Google, and was the necessary groundwork for S+YW to be able to function.

Adapted From: Your Google Plus Network Is More Powerful Than You Know,Windmill Networking