San Francisco — Google might have squeezed funds for its techie’s pet projects, but that does not thwart the company’s desire in seeking new ways to move closer towards offering personalized results, Google on Monday announced that it is experimenting with a new search feature called “Preferred Sites,” which will register the preferences of its users to make its search-engine results better.
The initiative behind Preferred Sites is that it allows users to assign the sites they trust most and wish to appear more often when they are relevant to a search query. Google suggests earmarking trusted sites or local and relevant news sites as preferred sites.
Google will also propose sites to include in your list based on your search history. The new feature affects searchers only when they are signed into a Google account, and the company promises other users won’t see the customized search results or what preferred sites have been designated.
According to Google’s help page for Preferred Sites explains:
“The preferred sites feature lets you set your Google Web Search preferences so that your search results match your unique tastes and needs. Fill in the sites you rely on the most, and results from your preferred sites will show up more often when they are relevant to your search query.”
Google indicated numerous ways users can reap the benefits of Preferred Sites. For example, they can include sites they trust for certain types of information, such as for sports scores, movie reviews, or health questions.
Searchers can also select local sites for news stories that are more relevant to them, like The Miami Herald if you live in Miami, Fla., or The Wall Street Journal. Google even allows searchers to include their favorite blogs for news and information.
“Preferred Sites is currently in experimental phase, and we are very interested in user feedback,” a Google blog says.
Erasing preferred sites from the list is a matter of clicking the Remove link next to the site’s URL and saving the preferences.
Google said that if Preferred Sites passes through the testing phase and becomes live for everyone, it is expected to have a significant impact on people’s searches.
Greg Sterling, chief analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, said this is part of Google’s overall effort to provide more customization in search results.
“There are a lot of different scenarios where I could imagine that this would be very helpful. There is generally a lot of disorder in search results and you get a lot of duplication,” Sterling said. “Google is using its algorithm to give you what they perceive to be the most trusted source on a particular query, but now also allowing you to add this other personal layer to that if you have a strong preference in a particular case.”
Sterling used the example of searching for electronics. Guaranteeing that Amazon.com or a preferred electronics vendor would come up at the top of the search results could be valuable for some users.
Preferred Sites is believed to be an extension of Google SearchWiki, a service that allows users to elevate, add, delete and also annotate their search results. The Preferred sites feature is active only if the users are logged in through their Google accounts. The preferred Web sites and search results are private.
“If your brain tinkers with ideas on how to improve the feature, you are welcome to post the suggestion at thePreferred Sites Discussion Group.”