What the Search Engines Know About Us

What the search engines know about us: 

What the search engines know about us Online Information, London, 2011 Karen Blakeman karen.blakeman@rba.co.uk http://twitter.com/karenblakeman http://www.rba.co.uk/ Slides available at http://www.rba.co.uk/as/ and on authorSTREAM and Slideshare This presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

Personalization is commonplace: 

Personalization is commonplace 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 2 \ \\\\\\ Amazon Online shopping (Ocado) Targeted advertising

Search engines personalize too: 

Search engines personalize too “Dear Bing, We Have 10,000 Ranking Signals To Your 1,000. Love, Google” http://searchengineland.com/bing-10000-ranking-signals-google-55473 over 200 hundred “signals”, many have over 50 variations “Bing Adds Adaptive Search, Customized by Your Search History” http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2109647/Bing-Adds-Adaptive-Search-Customized-by-Your-Search-History Emphasis on Google in this presentation because Google is the most open about what it does!! 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 3

Your browser, device, operating system...: 

Your browser, device, operating system... Panopticlick https://panopticlick.eff.org/ 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 4

Where are you?: 

Where are you? IP address location on desktop or laptop Mobile devices Present you with what they think is the relevant country information “local” content is given priority and more emphasis access to some sites and information blocked to those outside of local “region/area” Actual location is not always correct – some hotel broadband networks give the wrong country for user’s physical location 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 5

PowerPoint Presentation: 

01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 6

Search engines remember what you’ve done: 

Search engines remember what you’ve done Results change depending on activity So do ads for your “ad preferences” in Google go to http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/ gives you a clue as to what Google (and other search engines) thinks you like to see 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 7

Facebook remembers you...: 

Facebook remembers you... ....even when you think you’ve deleted stuff europe-v-facebook.org http://europe-v-facebook.org/ europe-v-facebook.org - Data Pool http://europe-v-facebook.org/EN/Data_Pool/data_pool.html 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 8

Google knows us so well: 

Google knows us so well 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 9 Google personalizes and tailors your results depending on your location, computer, browser, past searches, what you have looked at in the past, your +1s, your blocked sites, your Google+ account, your other social networks, what you had for breakfast...and anything else it can find by rummaging around in your Google dashboard They all do it

Google personalization: 

Google personalization 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 10

Your social networks: 

Your social networks Logged in to a Google account? Your social media connections may be given priority Used +1 to “approve” a page or posting? Blocked sites from your searches? Google says it may use all of these as “signals” for everyone, not just you Check the dashboard on your Google account http://www.google.com/dashboard 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 11

PowerPoint Presentation: 

01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 12 An identical search run at the same time by several  people with differing social network connections and on different devices will come up with different results. Presents problems for those of us who help and advise others on effective search strategies. We can no longer say that a particular search strategy is the best approach for dealing with a specific type of search. You see what you want to see

Google can seriously damage your news : 

Google can seriously damage your news Experiment by Mary Ellen Bates Is Google really filtering my news? - Librarian of Fortune http://www.librarianoffortune.com/librarian_of_fortune/2011/09/is-google-really-filtering-my-news.html Highlights More than 25% of stories showed up in only one searcher’s results Almost one in five searchers saw a story that no one else saw Only 12% of searchers saw the same 3 stories in the same order And it’s about to get worse – “Google News Launches "Standout" Tag for Featured Content” http://searchengineland.com/google-news-launches-standout-tag-for-featured-content-94256 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 13

Do you know what you’re sharing and with whom?: 

Do you know what you’re sharing and with whom? Facebook news apps “Read" in Facebook - It's Not a Button, So Be Careful What You Click! http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/read_in_facebook_social_news_apps.php Google profiles can no longer be private Google+ circles Android Google+ by default uploads photos to your album (thankfully doesn’t automatically share – at the moment) Google+ taking over share functions e.g. Google Reader 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 14

Do you know what you’re sharing and with whom?: 

Do you know what you’re sharing and with whom? 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 15 Logging in to sites with email address, user name and password disappearing Log in with Facebook or Google+ account Log in with Facebook and you automatically "like" the page or site, with Google+ you +1 it

De-cluttering your Google dashboard may not be possible : 

De-cluttering your Google dashboard may not be possible  01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 16

More dashboard clutter....: 

More dashboard clutter.... 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 17 Note: Secondary connections are included in determining relevant search results

Do you have any control over personalization?: 

Do you have any control over personalization? Not entirely but damage limitation sometimes possible Decide whether or not having a web history is going to be a help or a hindrance If you have a Google or Bing account: log out of it when you don’t need it regularly check your dashboard and privacy settings delete “stuff” and clear histories if you don’t need them Use Google Verbatim when necessary Check your ad preferences in Google and also consider using Network Advertising Initiative http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp Cookie management (but remember if you delete all cookies you will lose opt-out cookies as well) 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 18

Reject all cookies?: 

Reject all cookies? You won’t get very far on the internet without cookies New European legislation “Cookie laws” http://www.out-law.com/page-5486 Active management of cookies? Can be time consuming and may lose opt-out cookies 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 19

PowerPoint Presentation: 

01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 20 “Normal” search Verbatim (identical to &pws=0) Chrome Incognito Google searches

Go undercover?: 

Go undercover? Anonymous proxy servers? Browser tools Firefox – Tools, Start private browsing Chrome has an incognito mode - still has localisation Internet Explorer – In Private Browsing Scroogle.org – anonymised interface to Google no cookies, no search-term records, access log deleted within 48 hrs web search only and no verbatim search DuckDuckGo.com – does not keep your web history or personalize Blekko.com http://help.blekko.com/index.php/what-do-the-privacy-options-in-prefs-do/ Personalization is not always bad! 01/12/2011 www.rba.co.uk 21