Google announced Wednesday that it is in the process of searching for beta testers for a new form of search. You might ask where on earth is left to search...and the obvious reply is your inbox!
Specifically Google is testing the ability to show search results from your email in a box off to the side of your traditional Google search page. The reason why this is impressive is the fact that not only is Google searching the entire web for your results, but its also running queries against your own mailbox which when run in aggregate across all users is about the same size as an Internet search.
Beta testers will have the option to hide the feature in situations where they don't want email results to return alongside web results (e.g. at work).
The real question is by allowing you to view your personal data (e.g., your email) as part of the search process will Google actually use that personal data to help refine the search. Or...taking the next logical leap, to refine the Ads that you see during search.
The obvious benefit to users is that they will now have a one stop shop where they can search for all of the relevant information (including their own). In addition, users might not mind giving up their email information if it helps to produce optimized search results and might tolerate the ads a bit better if they were more targeted (as long as there is a limit as to have data is shared).
All in all this feels like a very slippery slope for El Goog and has the potential to turn into a privacy nightmare if not communicated and deployed correctly.
Mashable - Google showing Gmail results in Search
Specifically Google is testing the ability to show search results from your email in a box off to the side of your traditional Google search page. The reason why this is impressive is the fact that not only is Google searching the entire web for your results, but its also running queries against your own mailbox which when run in aggregate across all users is about the same size as an Internet search.
Beta testers will have the option to hide the feature in situations where they don't want email results to return alongside web results (e.g. at work).
The real question is by allowing you to view your personal data (e.g., your email) as part of the search process will Google actually use that personal data to help refine the search. Or...taking the next logical leap, to refine the Ads that you see during search.
The obvious benefit to users is that they will now have a one stop shop where they can search for all of the relevant information (including their own). In addition, users might not mind giving up their email information if it helps to produce optimized search results and might tolerate the ads a bit better if they were more targeted (as long as there is a limit as to have data is shared).
All in all this feels like a very slippery slope for El Goog and has the potential to turn into a privacy nightmare if not communicated and deployed correctly.
Mashable - Google showing Gmail results in Search
3 comments:
I actually like this idea. I think it will help improve search for the end user. However, I do think it is important to have the choice each time as to whether personal email is included or not... work being a prime example of when not to include it. At this point I don't really care if advertisers are exploiting me more or not. I am already bombarded by ads... what do I really care what they are for anyway as long as they are not inappropriate or embarrassing?
This is a great enhancement , if done right to extend the search from public websites to private emails. To me, the ease of single interface to search my emails and websites is a major selling point; even though the GMail search is out there, it take few more clicks to do it than searching from Google home page (which by the way is my personal gadgets homepage). To Google this means more inventory to offer advertisers, since this will be a great place to provide contextual ads in a well known search page interface (GMail advertising is cluttered and the CTRs there are much lower than on Search results page). And for advertisers , more targeting options and improved impressions and CTRs (ROI might not change much thought unless related user engagement/call to action factors change)!
I'm in to be a beta tester!
Looks to me more like a privacy nightmare. I really don’t see the added value to the user here and how Google will make money out of it. From a user stand point, we could search our inbox by our own without a need for Google to search it for us. Plus I hardly see how to use our inbox for search, the quality of the search results won’t be necessarily high. From a Google standpoint, the only way Google can make money out of it is through advertising, otherwise why would they even bother? Search advertising will make it become much more annoying from a user standpoint since it will be violating personal boundaries. We are back to the privacy nightmare. I’m afraid if Google was to take that path that it will disappoint its customers, and would be forced to back off like Facebook did in 2007. This means it will be a loss of money for them and a waste of time. Instead, I think, moving forward, Google should focus on its mobile business, as the popularity of mobile search among consumers has increased by 500% in the past two years with 51% of Mobile browsers using Mobile search engines today. This phenomenon has significantly accelerated Mobile “search”advertising spending, a revenue that will benefit Google in the long run.
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