When Cuil launched a few days ago, one of the features they promoted is that they don’t store ANY info about searches performed on the site. Now Google has shot back by making their “customized results” a bit more transparent.
When you search, you might start to see a box in the top right corner that says something like “Customized for…”. Personally, I haven’t seen one yet so I’ll just have to show you the example photo they posted on the Official Google Blog:
They say the results are based on a few factors:
- Location: Using your IP address
- Recent searches: Not historical searches, but when you search one thing after another.
- Web History: If you’re signed in and you’ve enabled web history, it might use some of that data.
They make it clear that the results aren’t new — just more transparent. Good move, I think.