Google Gets (even more) Personal

Notice anything different about your Google search results yet? You will soon.

On May 30th, Google commenced roll-out of a new category of search results: Personal

What's going to be included on the Personal tab?

This tab will show you relevant results based on your search terms, but these results come from your personal Google usage. The Personal tab shows you results that are only visible to you, and they can originate from Google Photos, Calendar or Gmail. Google Drive support isn’t included (yet). 

Time will tell if users adopt this new tab, or reject it because it appears too intrusive -- seeing your own personal appointments appearing in Google search results could be a turn off to many users (even though these search results are only visible by you).

One legitimate concern, however, is usage on shared computers. If you are logged into Google while searching online, and someone else uses your workstation while you are still logged in, they will have access to your Personal tab.

How to Opt Out

If you want to stop Google from including any Personal results, you can access your  Google Account, access the Personal Info & Privacy section and in the  Search Settings area, tick the  Do Not use private results option in the  Private Results section. If you don't see this option, it means that Personal results haven't rolled out to you yet.

Of course, personal search results can appear only when you’re signed in to Google. So if you want to guard your privacy, you can sign out of your Google account on computers shared with others if you want to be fully certain your Personal results aren't being served to others.

Andrew Caron operates CorporateSupport.ca, where businesses can find North American based webmasters for their website maintenance & updates, offered in convenient monthly packages.