Monday, January 19, 2009

Google Wants to Know Your Preferences

Google has introduced a new search feature called Preferred sites, which lets the user set his Google Web Search preferences so that his search results match his unique tastes and needs. Users have to fill in the sites they rely on the most, and results from their preferred sites will show up more often when they're relevant to your search query.

However, the preferred sites feature is only activated while you're signed in at your Google Account. No one else sees your customized search results or what you've marked as your preferred sites.

Once you have signed in, you can edit your preferred sites at the bottom of the Google Preferences page, which you can access by clicking the Preferences link next to the search box on Google.com. Google uses your web history and other information from your Google Account to suggest sites that it thinks you might like to include; you can select from these suggestions or enter the URLs of other sites. When you're done with editing your preferred sites, you have to save your preferences.

Once you've added preferred sites, you'll see the label 'My preferred site' next to results from these sites in your search results.

To remove a site from your list of preferred sites, click the Remove link next to the site's URL on the Google Preferences page and save your preferences.