Search Engines Roll Out New Personalization Options

Over the last 2 weeks, there have been a series of announcements about new personalization options from several major search engines, each offering a different lure to retain searchers. First, Ask Jeeves upgraded MyJeeves, its personal search system. New features include new ways to add data, support for images, and more robust information management capabilities. Then, Yahoo! launched a new beta version of its Yahoo! News that has a streamlined design with easier navigation, plus its “My Sources” personalization feature lets users add news from all over the Web to the front page of Yahoo! News via RSS syndication. Also, Google has just introduced My Search History, a new beta application that keeps track of a registered user’s Web searches and pages viewed from search results. These new personalization options, in addition to features offered by A9.com, AOL, and others, give users a range of choices to match their individual search styles and needs.
Ask Jeeves first introduced MyJeeves in September 2004. MyJeeves allows users to save search results, search history, and links to favorite Web pages and images as they search. These can then be organized into folders, tagged, searched, and shared. The new version lets users:
Add to MyJeeves from the Ask Jeeves toolbars (for both IE and Firefox)
Save links to images and view thumbnails with MyJeeves
Import browser bookmarks
Organize with hierarchical folders, with up to seven levels of subfolders
Add a user’s own searchable metadata tags to any data within MyJeeves
The upgrade represents another step in Ask Jeeves’ personalization strategy. Jim Lanzone, senior vice president of search properties at Ask Jeeves, commented: “In the future, look for MyJeeves integration with both our desktop product and with Bloglines.”