A recent article in Popular Mechanics theorizes that the current model for a search engine could quickly become obsolete. Current search engines use a variety of techniques to decide which web pages are the most relevant to the keywords designated by the user. This works well today because the search engine ultimately decides this relevance based on a variety of factors that require zero user input. If a search engine first asked a multitude of questions about personal interests and activities, and then ran a search, the results may be more accurate in terms of what the user is looking for, but the total time for the process would be prohibitive.

However, as this article describes, with the popularity of web sites such as Facebook and Myspace, personal information of many people is already readily available on the internet. This type of personal information is not only invaluable to advertisers in keying in on what products to sell to certain people, but could also be used as a tool for search engines in creating more value for their product. A search that can take all of your information into account before running will be far more efficient at creating a positive result than one without this capability. This could be the new method for a new wave of internet searches in which our information is seamlessly intertwined in our web activities. However, this type of increased connectivity, also poses problems for privacy. Even though many users have no problem with their friends seeing their information and interests, it could be a different story when asked to relinquish this data to a search engine such as Google. Although I do see a possibility in the future for Facebook and Google to attempt to integrate their services, in the nearer term it may be advantageous for Google to give the option for users to create a profile with the types of information that can make web search that much better.

Original Article:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4259135.html