Google is testing Preferred Sites, allowing the company to fine tune your search results on the basis of a list of your favorite sites.

Anyone who has set up a Google custom search engine, knows that they have the technology that makes it possible to adjust search results according to your interests.

Indeed, so-called personalized search makes this an automatic process: If you log in as a user, Google can keep track of your searches and find out your main areas of interest. It will adjust search result rankings accordingly.

Tell Google about the sites you like the most

Now Google has is testing a new feature to personalized search similar to the one found in custom search engines.

Google says:

“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’re relevant to your search query.”

To make use of Google Preferred Sites, you have to be logged in to your Google Account (use your Gmail address, or — if you don’t have one — get one for free).

If you are one of the users selected for testing (and that is a big if) you can now go to the end of the Google Preference Page and add the sites you would like Google to give a boost in your personal search engine rankings.

SEM consequences

From a search engine marketing perspective this is yet another nail in the coffin for the traditional “we will give you a top ten ranking!” kind of search engine optimization. The more people allow personalized search the less likely it becomes that many persons are served the same results.

And note: Even if people do not log in and allow personalized search, Google will still adapt the search results to their geographical location.

This means that more generalized organic search engine marketing tactics will become more important. There are fewer and fewer short cuts to a good ranking.

To what extent Google will use this tagging of preferred sites to boost the ranking of this sites in general is not known. Google could interpret a large number of such entries to be a sign of quality.

Privacy

Although it would lead to a PR disaster for Google if it was caught spying on your personal searches, you should be aware of the fact that you make all your search habits available to Google when signing up for web history and personalized search.

If you really feel that there are parts of your surfing habits that should remain private, your probably better off sticking to the impersonal side of web searching.

See also Google Operating System: Google Preferred Sites
PageTraffic: Preferred Sites- A New Feature By Google!