For better or worse Google has followed through on their commitment to bring personalized search to Google.  What does this mean for search engine optimization and what does it mean for each individual user?Will Google Use Personal Search and the SearchWiki for Ranking Websites?
Google’s spokes people are saying that it will have not effect on the overall ranking of sites in the index, but can they be believed.  I am afraid the answer is no.  Google is not transparent about the factors that they rank on and they will eventually use their SearchWiki for ranking.

Though Google is not transparent about how it ranks sites, what is known is that a large part of Google’s ranking algorithm is based on the popularity of a Website.  They’ve been doing this based at least in part on links.  Now the truth about links is that they are very, very susceptible to manipulation.  Google has decided to fight people buying links, reciprocal linking and directory links, but in spite of this there remain dozens of ways to get links that have nothing to do with what another Website owner things of the site it is linking to.

At some point if their idea for personalized search takes off and they get a lot of people voting one site up over another it is going to become far to tempting for them not to add or even make this a primary factor in their ranking.  Is that a bad thing?  Not necessarily, but many people believe it is an elite group of users who are most likely to use this feature, so an elite group may be determining what all are seeing.

The prudent thing seo is to start using this tool.  Vote your own site up and have your network vote your site up too.  As always be smart about this and how you do it.

SearchWiki for Increasing Visitors

One of the features of the SearchWiki is the ability to make comments about a site.  Those comments are available to anyone else looking at the results for that site.  Thus what you say and how you say it can play a role in getting other to move your site, or a site you comment on, up in their search results.  Obviously, you should comment well on Websites you want to make popular.  Another thing to keep in mind is that people like sites that other people like so more positive comments on your site can only help you in the long run.

Is Personal Search Good for Personal Use

Given the advice above about having your networks vote you up you might think that I am going to say yes, but in reality I don’t think this is the case at all. When you use personal search and the SearchWiki to move a site up or out of the list you move it permenantly for your results.  Do new better sites ever come along?  Yes, everyday and any user using personal search limits what they see. Sure you can log out of your account to see what the world is seeig, or if you’re like me with two screens and three or four browsers on your computer you can easily jump between the results.  The reality for most users is they don’t have two screens and several browsers and signing in and out of accounts is just too much of a bother.

Now that you’ve got my opinions here’s what Google has to say about their new SearchWiki

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