Hello, I hope you're enjoying our ongoing discussion about Noteworthy Algorithms. In this lesson, we're going to change things up a bit and discuss a combination of algorithm and other search functionality updates. We'll talk about personalized and universal search progression, as well as the Vince, and Caffeine updates. And how they all address different areas of search but continue to build on each other. When discussing personalized search, we'll also discuss the idea of privacy versus personalization. So keep that in the back of your mind as you proceed with the lesson, and think about where you stand on the issue. There were many updates that made small adjustments to the ranking algorithm after Brandy, but the next big one to discuss is personalized search which occurred in 2005. Google had previously attempted to personalize search results, but these attempts never worked very well as they required custom settings and profiles and browsers. In June of 2005, they were able to change this with the roll out of personalized search that provided unique search results based on a user's personal search history, their language, location, and other proprietary information. The impact was not very large at the time, but personalized search has since been improved on and used for many applications since then. One technique currently used to personalize search is to track web history in a browser. Google's own browser Chrome is able to collect a lot of data that can identify users, so they do not always have to go through Google first for information to be gathered. The more you visit a particular site, the more Google believes that you find that page useful. Now when you perform certain searches, Google's personalized search algorithm will boost that page in rankings. This can occur even if you are signed out, based on a history of sites linked to cookies in your browser. Many concerns have been raised around the topic of personalized search. Some believe it decreases the likelihood of discovering new sites by creating a bias set of results toward what the user has already visited. This also introduces potential privacy problems, especially since Google is no longer just a search engine but a for profit corporation that has become involved in many aspects of our lives. Many applications can be personalized and integrated with the assistance of your Google account. This has led to privacy versus personalization battles. And as one becomes more prominent, it can compromise the other. Skipping ahead a few years to 2007, the next big change to impact organic search was the universal search update. While this is not an algorithm update, it did change the traditional search landscape. Results now show images, videos, news results, local results and more. In this example, you can see that the search for firefly returned a potential local result on the side of the window as well as the side option to see results about the Firefly TV series. The organic listings contain news results, as well as images from the Firefly TV series. Making sure to include resources like images and videos within your site will provide additional opportunities for visitors to find you through universal search features. The next algorithm update was Vince. This took place in February of 2009. Vince strongly favors big brands above smaller, less well known sites. While Google referred to this update as a minor change, the update has more profound implications for small businesses and the future of search. We already know Google views brands highly based on past quotes from Eric Schmidt, the then CEO and current executive chairman of Google. In 2006, Schmidt is quoted as saying, the internet is fast becoming a cesspool where false information thrives. He then went on to say that brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool. Opinions are mixed about this. Many in the SEO industry are opposed to the brand play, while others agree with Schmidt and welcome the change. I have provided some article links for you to read further. Some of the links are focused on the positive aspects of the change, while others are against the change. I recommend reviewing these on your own and developing your own opinion on the topic. Please refer to your study materials for the links I am referencing. The next update we will discuss is the update known as Caffeine. Caffeine wasn't so much of an algorithm update as an improvement to Google's indexing system. As you may guess by the name, Caffeine focuses on speed, and was a major infrastructure update by Google. This required them to build a new search indexing system. This system allows websites to become indexed and show up in search much faster than they were able to in the past. This provides Google the ability to serve real-time updates and results so users can find the most relevant content for their query. In the past, there was a significant delay, sometimes a couple of weeks before a website was discovered by Google and when it was found in the index. The Caffeine update allows Google to process pages on a much larger scale and add these straight to the index once they're discovered. Because this updates indexes and ranks content much faster, publishing content pieces that revolve around current trending topics is a great idea as this can get more people exposed to your branded website. By now you should understand past algorithm updates, and how those updates have affected the SEO industry. You should now be able to spot trends in these updates so you can better predict where search is headed and gain a better understanding of what Google is looking for in a website. Next, we will discuss more recent updates and how these have affected the SEO industry. That completes the video portion of this lesson.
