*correction* "Murphy's Law" 1943, not

[Dave Wilton]

I've never seen that line in any of my search results, but then I only sign into my Google account when I'm doing something administrative with Google AdSense, so Google has no clue who I am or what I've searched in the past. And my browser is set to delete all cookies and web history when I close it, so there is never much of a history for them to read from my browser--which I don't think they can do anyway. They can locate me in the Bay Area through my ISP, and I have seen localized search results when I'm searching for restaurants and the like.

Does Google not present certain results if it thinks you don't want them? Or does it only mess with the order in which their presented (the "relevance")? What do they mean by "customize"?



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Mark Mandel
Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2009 1:12 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: *correction* "Murphy's Law" 1943, not

On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 5:36 PM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>
> I'm convinced Google does some massaging of the data to display what they
> think you are looking for, rather than what you are asking for.

They do, and they tell you so, and they give you the option to cancel
that for each search. Whenever I run a Google search, I see at the
foot of the page

      Personalized based on your web history. More details

Clicking on "More details" produces this:

====

When possible, Google will customize your search results based on
location and/or recent search activity. Additionally, when you're
signed in to your Google Account, you may see even more relevant,
useful results based on your web history.

The following information was used to improve your search results for
[your search string]:

Web History
One or more items in your Web History were used to improve search results.
Manage Web History
Remove Web History from my Google Account
If you're curious, you can see what a search for [your search string]
looks like without these improvements.

The 'More details' link on your search results page can be used to
display this page for approximately 30 minutes, after which it will no
longer show this page.

====

-- m a m

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org