Put most simply, personalized search is the delivery of search engine results that are uniquely tailored to both keyphrases and individual searchers. For example, in the early days of search, everyone searching for the phrase “AMD” would get the same results, whether they were interested in silicone chips or semiconductors, or age-related macular degeneration. With personalized search, the search engines are beginning to gauge a user’s intent and differentiate between those users looking to invest in AMD, the searchers looking to buy AMD chips, and those looking to care for their eyes.How are search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask able to provide these customized search results? By tracking their users’ behavior online. Search engines have access to a wide range of user data, including search history, bookmarked pages, and more, that allows them to gauge a searcher’s “intent”.
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