Your data on Google
Making search more relevant
Making our search algorithm better
You’re about to go out for dinner and have to choose between two identical-looking restaurants on the same street. One is full, the other empty. You’ll probably choose the bustling restaurant, and when it comes to Google Search, we often use the same principle when selecting which results to give you. To bring you the most relevant results for each search query, we look at the usage patterns of millions of people using Google every day.
It is by analysing these search patterns via our logs data that our engineers are able to improve the search algorithms that determine the order in which our search results appear. If our engineers can see that people are consistently clicking the top result for any given query, they know that they are doing something right. If people are hitting “next page” or typing in another query, they know that they’re not delivering the results that people are looking for and can then take action to try to improve the search algorithms.
Personalisation
Most people find what they are looking for on Google most of the time. But we know that our search results don’t always give you what you were looking for, and that is because there is inevitably an element of guesswork involved, especially when the search term is ambiguous. If you search for [Paris Hilton], do you want a hotel in the French capital or celebrity gossip? If you type in [Chelsea], are you looking for information about the football club or about different neighbourhoods in London or New York?
An algorithm cannot
provide all these answers, so it helps if we know a little bit about you. If we have some
extra clues to your preferences, we will have a much better chance of delivering the
results you’re looking for on the first try.
One of these clues is your location. If you live in Brighton, you really don’t need a plumber from New York (imagine the call-out charge for a start!). That’s why we often give you results based on where you are. One of the ways that we can do this is by using your IP address, a numerical code which tells us roughly where your computer is to the city or regional level, so that your search results won’t take you halfway across the world to find a plumber.
Another clue lies in your
previous searches. If you search for [golf] do you want to drive a car or drive a ball?
It’s hard to tell, so we have to do a little bit more than look at the general search
patterns of other people to get you the results that you want. If you’ve searched for
golfing equipment before, we can guess that you probably meant the clubs and not the car.
Normally we do this only within a single session, e.g. within the most recent couple of hours that you’ve been using Google, so if you searched for clubs yesterday and then golf today we may not be able to guess what you mean. However, if you sign in to a Google Account and use Web History, we can offer you increased personalisation and more control over how your searches are personalised.
It’s good to know that data can make Google search results more relevant. Read the next topic: How we use data to make our services more secure
