Google has added a component to My Search History, using the accumulated search record to influence the results obtained when logged in to the Google account. This is a transparent feature; you simply search Google when logged in, and the results are (presumably) relevant to your history when using keywords that could in a number of directions. For example, if you have searched for MP3-related key strings, searching with the keyword player might bring up Web content about MP3 players. My testing has yielded indeterminate results. Google Personalized Search is a Google Labs experiment. Some observers think personalized search is a poor idea, since past searches don't necessarily indicate present search needs. I think personalized search has a useful place if implemented correctly. Currently, the Google system is rather dumb; the user has no control over the personalization, and, in fact, can't even turnh it off without signing out entirely. That's no good. I'd like to see an intensity slider atop the results to modulate the degree of personalization. [UPDATE: Thanks to the comment below, I realize my mistake here. Google does offer an OFF switch to personalized searching, which appears whenever personalized search results are present. I didn't realize that I wasn't getting personalized results at first, and thought that they were personalized without an OFF switch.]
1. You can turn off the personalisation. If your search returns personalised results, then there is an option at the top which asks if you would like to turn off personalisation for that search. I think it works very well. (But you do need to have a lot gathered in your search history in order for it to personalise your results regularly)
You will know when you've recieved personalised result
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Dan Neal