Vast Active Library and Information Science blog. From a recent library science graduate in Wellington, New Zealand. A focus on reference and current awareness tools and issues, especially free, web-based resources.

 
Trying to overcome the problems inherent in natural-language searching, whereby if I search for "squash" I get dozens of irrelevant, to me, results for squash the vegetable, Google has launched a personalisation service in Beta.

"[U]sers fill out a personal preference profile and then provides search results based on interests.

For instance, users signifying an interest in music and searching for the word "bass" will receive listings on the instrument as opposed to receiving an outdoor enthusiasts' results on the fish, Google says. The degree of personalization can also be adjusted on a sliding scale, allowing users to receive results that stick close to their preferences or are more general in nature."

From Yahoo News

Having had a quick play with this, all I can say is, it has some way to go. But it's a great idea.

| posted by Simon at 8:55 am