Transcript Personalisation of search: take back control Karen Blakeman, RBA Information Services 5th June 2012 Pre-conference workshop, 11th Southern African Online Information Meeting, Sandton Convention.

Personalisation of search: take back control
Karen Blakeman, RBA Information Services
5th June 2012
Pre-conference workshop, 11th Southern African Online Information Meeting,
Sandton Convention Centre
Slides are available at
http://www.rba.co.uk/as/
[email protected]
Twitter: @karenblakeman
http://www.rba.co.uk/
This presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
General plan for the session
Getting to know one another and feedback on search issues
Slides are a basic framework for the session (download from
http://www.rba.co.uk/as/ now if you wish). I'll create an
addendum of key, additional information after the session.
Ask questions as we go along, or write on the notelets and we'll
have Q&A slots throughout the session
Summary of "stuff" we've learned and what to take back home
and to work
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How it all started
Before 1992 priced electronic databases indexed by humans.
Many still exist for example LexisNexis, STN, Dialog
1992 – the Internet can be accessed by anyone but 2-3 years
before significant information started appearing on the web
Increase in amount of data and information led to the
development of tools that indexed and searched the content of
web pages
Lycos, Excite, AltaVista, Hotbot
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How the web search tools worked (and still
do in part)
"Crawl" the internet looking for new and updated pages by following
links
Copies of pages and documents added to a database that is publicly
searchable
Results sorted according to:
– how often the words you looked for appear in the page
– where they appear (words in the title and first few sentences
given higher ranking)
– and other criteria not disclosed by the search engines
They do not cover:
– password protected sites
– databases or sites where you have to fill in a form to find the
information
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Then along came.....
11 November 1998
From the Internet Archive
www.archive.org
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How was Google different?
Links (citations) a major
part of sorting search
results
http://www.seobook.com/le
arn-seo/collateraldamage.php
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Google 2011
Revenues $37,905 millions
Net Income $9,737 millions
http://investor.google.com/fina
ncial/tables.html
2011 – 96% of revenues are
from advertising
Google has a problem....
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Google's problem "How People Spend Their Time
Online – Stephen's Lighthouse"
http://stephenslighthouse.com/2012/03/14/how-peoplespend-their-time-online/
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Search engines and social networks need to keep you on their
"properties" – captive audience
Always trying to deliver new services to stop you wandering off
to other sites
To keep you on-site need to deliver content as relevant as
possible to YOU
–
–
–
–
–
need to know more about you
need to know what sort of information you are interested in
need you signed in to your account
need to know who your contacts are on-site and elsewhere
need to know about your activity elsewhere
Personalise results
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The Filter Bubble: What The
Internet Is Hiding From You
Eli Pariser
Publisher: Viking (23 Jun 2011)
ISBN-10: 067092038X
ISBN-13: 978-0670920389
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Trends in search
No longer straightforward text searching of web pages and
documents
Localisation
Personalisation
Social
Mobile
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How far does personalisation go?
Google can seriously damage your news
http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2011/09/03/google-can-seriouslydamage-your-news/
Is Google really filtering my news?
http://www.librarianoffortune.com/librarian_of_fortune/2011/09/isgoogle-really-filtering-my-news.html
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How far does personalisation go?
An Awfully Big Blog Adventure: The answer to your question... depends
on who you are (Anne Rooney)
http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/answer-to-yourquestion-depends-on-who.html
Borromeo
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vs
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Borromeo
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Word cloud of top 20 results
for a Google search on Prague
(web history and social
networks switched off, cookies
cleared)
Word cloud of top 20
results for a Google search
on Prague (signed in to
Google+ account, social
networks and web history
enabled)
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Google loses the plot?
Search on goats
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Dear Google, stop messing with my search
http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2011/11/08/dear-googlestop-messing-with-my-search/
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Google introduces the “soft AND”
“When you do a multi-term query on Google (even with
quoted terms), the algorithm sometimes backs-off from hard
ANDing all of the terms together.......it’s clear that people will
often write long queries (with anywhere from 5 to 10 terms) for
which there are no results. Google will then selectively
remove the terms that are the lowest frequency to give you
some results (rather than none)....Soft AND is a way to reduce
the overall frustration and give the searcher something to
examine (and with luck, a chance to reformulate their query).”
Dan Russell
http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2011/11/08/dear-google-stopmessing-with-my-search/#comments
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Google
No more '+' to force an exact match
No more automatic 'ANDing' of your terms
No more highlighting your search terms in its
cached copy of a page
No more clearing search history unless you are
logged in to a Google account [alternatively
delete all search cookies from your browser]
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Google's new Privacy Policy
"Our new Privacy Policy makes clear that, if you’re
signed in, we may combine information you’ve
provided from one service with information from other
services. In short, we’ll treat you as a single user
across all our products, which will mean a simpler,
more intuitive Google experience."
"we're more excited than ever to build a seamless
social experience, all across Google"
Toward a simpler, more beautiful Google
http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/toward-simpler-more-beautifulgoogle.html
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What does Google know about you?
Look in your Google account dashboard
http://www.google.com/dashboard/
How Google is targeting your ads
http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/
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Impact of Google's policy and personal
information management changes on YouTube
Targeted
advertising?!
I wonder how
Google will
customise my web
search based on
my YouTube
viewing?
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Gives me videos based on my web search
history, linked to my location (Reading) plus a
long list of videos mentioned by people in my
Google+ circles.
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Google Enables Cross-Platform
Local Search (As Carrot To
Relinquish Your Privacy)
http://searchengineland.com/go
ogle-enables-cross-platformlocal-search-as-carrot-for-webhistory-113811
Introducing a new local search
experience across your devices
- Inside Search
http://insidesearch.blogspot.co.
uk/2012/03/introducing-newlocal-search-experience.html
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Google's new(ish) social network Google Plus (Google+)
http://plus.google.com/
Google Now Forcing All New Users To Create Google+ Enabled
Accounts
http://marketingland.com/google-now-forcing-all-new-users-to-creategoogle-enabled-accounts-3912
Search Plus Your World (SPYW) referred to as Search+ now available
in Google.com and is the default. Gives priority to content from people
in your Google+ network if you are signed in to your account.
(And the next Google killer is….Google!
http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2012/01/30/and-the-next-google-killeris-google/ )
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SPYW currently being tested on Google.com
Top results (blacked out for privacy
reasons) were from one of my Google+
circles and from people who restricted
access to the postings.
Take care when providing information to
users or incorporating data as part of a
report
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Google Knowledge Graph
Introducing the Knowledge Graph
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/search/knowled
ge.html
It isn't a graph!
At present only on Google.com
Only shows if you are logged in to a Google+ enabled account
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Google Knowledge Graph
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Google Knowledge Graph
No Knowledge Graph
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Bing - Adapting Search to You
http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2011
/09/14/adapting-search-to-you.aspx
Bing to use Facebook, Twitter more in fight against Google | ZDNet :
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/bing-to-use-facebook-twittermore-in-fight-against-google/8631
Bing Relaunches, Features New Social Sidebar
http://searchengineland.com/the-new-bing-microsoft-tries-againwith-search-meets-social-120728
"It’s not just Facebook and Twitter that get to play in the
social sidebar, however. Social suggestions might also
come from LinkedIn, Quora, Foursquare, Blogger and wait for it - Google Plus"
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Bing Relaunches, Features New Social Sidebar :
http://searchengineland.com/the-new-bing-microsofttries-again-with-search-meets-social-120728
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No social side bar for me (not in the US) but social network 'stuff'
appears in main results
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So.cl : http://www.so.cl/
Microsoft Launches Socl Social Network: A Look Inside
http://marketingland.com/microsoft-launches-so-cl-social-network-aquick-look-12499
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What I see on my screen is not
what you'll see on yours!
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How do search engines personalise results?
Depends on:
– your location
– past searches
– which sites you have looked at in the past
– your +1s
– your likes
– your shares
– sites blocked by you (Google)
– which social networks you are signed in to
– who is in your social networks
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To allow personalisation or not?
Not necessarily a bad thing
Use a second browser with search history enabled and logged in
to accounts for a different point of view
It does bias results
What I see on my screen is not what you'll see on yours
Be aware of potential privacy issues regarding friends and
contacts in social networks when providing results to your users
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Want to switch it off?
Disable and remove web/search history
- but in Google, no option to erase 'signed out' histories
Actively manage search cookies, automatically delete cookies after
computer log out or switch off
- How to delete cookies
- http://aboutcookies.org/Default.aspx?page=2
Log out of all search engine and social media accounts when searching
Use Chrome Incognito (Chrome owned by Google!)
In Google use Verbatim in the left hand menu on results page
Use advanced search commands if relevant
Use a search engine that doesn't track or personalise
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Google search settings
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Google web history
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Verbatim
Forces Google to run an exact
match search. Run your search first
and then select Verbatim from the
left hand menu on your results page
Cannot be combined with time
options in the side bar
Google: Verbatim for exact match
search
http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/201
1/11/18/google-verbatim-for-exactmatch-search/
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Signed out
Chrome incognito
Verbatim
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Try a search tool with less or no personalisation
DuckDuckGo – does not track, does not personalise
http://duckduckgo.com/
Yandex.com – International version of the Russian search
engine
http://www.yandex.com/
Blekko
http://www.blekko.com/
Million Short – omits the top million most "popular" sites from
results
http://www.millionshort.com/
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Use more than Google anyway
The Disruptive Searcher (Sanity checking Google
http://disruptivesearcher.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/sanity
-checking-google/)
“if I hadn’t searched across more than Google for data
on a small, new company that I was asked to research
recently, I would have missed out on some very
significant information that Google just wasn’t showing
me.”
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Bing
http://www.bing.com/
Does personalise search and include social network content
in results
Most of the interesting developments and features are only
available in the US version
Results tend to be more consumer/retail focused unless
using advanced search features
Coverage not identical to Google’s - sometimes yields
important unique content, especially in research and
business
Sometimes more up to date than Google
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Bing
Link to minimalist advanced search options now vanished
Advanced Search Operators
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff795620
Main ones
– site:
– filetype:
– intitle:
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DuckDuckGo
http://duckduckgo.com/
DuckDuckGo – silly name but a neat little search tool :
http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2011/11/07/duckduckgo-sillyname-but-a-neat-little-search-tool/
No tracking, no “filter bubble”
Commands
site: inbody: intitle: filetype:
sort:date to sort by date (uses results from Blekko)
region:cc (e.g. za) to boost a country
Syntax and keyboard shortcuts at
http://duckduckgo.com/goodies.html
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Yandex
• http://www.yandex.com/
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Yandex – advanced search
OR
Search operators
http://help.yandex.com/search/?
id=1113759
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Blekko
http://blekko.com/
slashtags for sorting by date (/date), searching for images (/images)
and videos (/videos)
Use public slashtags to search a group of web sites covering a
particular topic or type of site e.g. /library or create your own to
search your specified list of sites (similar to Google Custom Search
Engines)
wind turbine electricity generation
/karenblakeman/renewable
“Musings about librarianship: Using Blekko to search across
thousands of library sites”
http://musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.com/2010/11/using-blekkoto-search-across-thousands.html
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Blekko
Cannot do filetype, inurl, intitle searches
Drop down menu next to page in results list for
– site search (or use /site)
– similar pages (or use /similar)
– inbound links to the page (or use /links)
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Million Short
http://www.millionshort.com/
"Imagine a search engine that simply removed the top 1
million most popular web sites from its index. What
would you discover?"
Can use
filetype:
site:
intitle
"..."
Can add individual sites back in
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Using Google features to best advantage
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Location
Country versions of Google to prioritise local content
– for example google.co.za, google.fr, google.de
– usually two letter ISO code for the country
Change location in left hand menu on results page
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Google.com and SPYW
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SPYW – hide personal results
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Personal results only
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Verbatim
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Google results page side bar
'Everything' does
not search
everything
Videos is not
YouTube
'Social' is not just Google+.
Look in your dashboard to see
who Google has decided to
include.
Not clear how
discussions are
identified
No Twitter option anymore
and Twitter coverage is
sporadic.
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Google side bars
Images
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Videos
News
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Books
Blogs
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Start using advanced search commands and
Google gives up on personalisation although you
may have to use Verbatim
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Looking for a particular type of information for example statistics, research
report, expert presentation?
Use the filetype: command
For statistics
world oil consumption filetype:xls
world oil consumption filetype:xlsx
world oil consumption filetype:xlsx OR filetype:xls
For government, research, industry reports
oil consumption forecasts filetype:pdf
For conference presentations or trying to locate an expert
renewable energy UK filetype:ppt
renewable energy UK filetype:pptx
renewable energy UK filetype:ppt site:ac.uk
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Numerical range search
Anything to do with numbers
Use advanced search screen
or
1st number followed by two full stops followed by 2nd number
followed by unit of measurement (if applicable)
– Norway oil production forecasts 2012..2020
– Norway oil production forecasts 2012..2020
filetype:xls OR filetype:xlsx
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Advanced commands continued
inurl: for example
inurl:"carbon capture" targets
intitle: for example
intitle:"carbon capture" targets
asterisk (*) to search for terms separated by 1-5 words (may
have to use quotation marks)
solar * panels
"solar * panels"
Picks up solar PV panels, solar photovoltaic panels, solar
water heating panels
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Synonyms
Google often looks for variations of your terms but you cannot
rely on it always happening
Use the tilde ~ before a term to look for what Google considers
are synonyms
– ~energy will pick up oil, fuel, gas, electricity
No information/documentation on how synonyms are created
Very general, consumer oriented rather than scientific
Can be used with Verbatim
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When you really DO want to search social media the main
search engines don't make it easy! Social media is an essential
part of many types of research.
Search within the network itself – means you must have an
account
Use specialist search tools
–
–
–
–
come and go
not comprehensive
need to use more than one
a few examples are shown in the following slides. For more
information on social media search tools see Phil Bradley's
presentations http://www.slideshare.net/Philbradley/
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LinkedIn.com
07 November 2015
Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk
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LinkedIn.com
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More on searching LinkedIn
Boolean Black Belt-Sourcing/Recruiting
http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/
Mary Ellen Bates Ten Top Tips for Searching LinkedIn
http://www.batesinfo.com/meb123/index.html
PDF http://www.batesinfo.com/extras/assets/linkedin.pdf
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Bing social http://www.bing.com/social/
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http://search.twitter.com/
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http://search.twitter.com/
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Topsy.com
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Topsy.com
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Icerocket.com
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Socialmention.com
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Keeping up to date
Inside Search http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/
Official Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Google Scholar Blog http://googlescholar.blogspot.com/
Search Engine Land http://searchengineland.com/
Search Engine Watch http://searchenginewatch.com/
Boolean Black Belt-Sourcing/Recruiting http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/
Karen Blakeman’s Blog http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/
Phil Bradley's weblog http://philbradley.typepad.com/
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