January 25, 2012

Searching for relevant information

My last post focused on what I called a random anomaly from Google that brought something completely unknown and not requested into my search window.

It's quite evident that the Google algorithm brings local content to the user, often based on what they have searched for before. While it makes me feel confident that the Experience Optimism blog shows up consistently first on my Chrome browser, I understand that is not true for others and honestly, it's a little creepy when the advertisements on my Gmail account mimic my messages a little too closely.

But what also happens with the Google algorithm is they choose to link to what they have hardcoded as relevant material and that may mean your Google+ page instead of your current blog posts and social streams like Twitter.


Does that make Google evil? The team at this website, Focus on the User, thinks so and they have created a tool that lets you search for more relevant results within Google.

I've only tried it a few times, so I'm not giving it a thumbs up or down. Fair warning: it doesn't seem to work with Chrome so I guess that means I'll have to continue to dig a little deeper for new content when I'm searching from my home base.


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