Google: Personalisation is the future

Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, likes her iPhone and she's a big fan of social networks, especially Facebook.

During her keynote this week at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in California, Mayer demonstrated Google Maps on her iPhone and said iPhone users could also use Google's free voice-activated yellow pages service, Goog 411. "You can say 'map it' and it sends you an SMS message with a link to the map," she said.

During her keynote she also talked about the parallels between Google's Gadgets and iGoogle, and Facebook, which she said is her favourite non-Google product.

She said: "There is a similar vein between both programs in that they are open platforms [and thus get broader distribution]. Anyone can create a Gadget or create a Facebook app."

Such applications are a "new form of advertising that's free", she added.

Mayer said she likes the way Facebook collects information about relationships between people, including when they met and how they know each other. "The type of information they're building about the social graph between people is something that is intelligent and will be particularly useful in the future," she said.

For general web search, personalisation is the future, according to Mayer. Ten to 15 years from now search sites will understand more about searchers, where they are located and what their personal preferences are, she predicted.

Mayer said one of the most important data points for improving search relevance based on personalisation is the previous query, although web history and address books could also be helpful "signals" to the search engine.

To avert the problem of inappropriate personalised results - such as the Amazon.com suggestions based on one abnormal purchase - Google searchers can see their search history and remove particular searches to tweak the personalisation, Mayer said. Google is considering indicating to the searcher when the results are personalised or offering a way to toggle between personalised and default results, she said.

It is important that the ads are personalised too, she said. The company is looking at changing the presentation of its Universal Search page "to guide users' eyes" so they can see the results and the advertisements, she said. "My philosophy is that the ads and the search results should match."

And when it comes to targeting, Mayer added: "For me, search and ads are almost the same."

In the future, Google may incorporate blog search, scholar and other types of searches into its Universal Search results page, which today weaves together results from news, video, maps and image search. "This is a pretty straightforward first attempt and we're looking at things that are much more radical," she said.

Meanwhile, mobile is taking off. This year was the first that Google noticed an increase in the use of Google mobile applications during the summer instead of a dip, she said. Usually web searches drop during the summer months as people go on vacation or spend more time outside in the nice weather. "You could see people almost switching off their computers and switching on their handhelds," she said.

Usage of Google mobile apps rose 10 per cent each week for the first three weeks in June and saw a 40 per cent to 50 per cent spike almost overnight after the iPhone was launched, Mayer said in comments after the keynote.

Elinor Mills writes for CNET News.com