A couple weeks ago Google launched a new Beta service called Insights (similar to its Trends, if you’ve used that).  I think you would have fun playing around with this for a few minutes (or hours:  it’s a little addictive) to learn something about your favorite search terms.  You’ll see trends over time and by region for those terms, and you can filter the results by category.  Note:  the category filters change the results a lot!  And, you can use some of your standard search tricks to manage the analysis, like adding a negative term to limit the output (san luis obispo -county).  Enjoy and profit!

You’ve heard about it forever.  The Web History “service” has been available in your Google account for a long time.  Now, Google is using personal characteristics, like IP address and your Web History, to customize search results.  

This will change the results a searcher will see if they have this feature turned on.  The SEO world gets a little more complicated all the time, doesn’t it?  This should help people get better search results if they know how to use it.  That’s another issue.

Read about it from Googler Rachel Garb.

The Atlantic Monthly has an article titled ‘Is Google Making Us Stupid?‘. We don’t usually think so, but the article is worth a look.

The point is that Google (as a proxy for the Internet and search in general) is changing the way we process information. The author talks about how he and friends of his can no longer tolerate reading long articles or books — instead, they scan, they jump, they skim. And we see magazines and other media changing layouts and content to adapt to this.

Will it make us stupid? I think it could: if you don’t learn how to read a well-reasoned argument, assess the data or information it contains, and put it in context of different opinions, you cannot build up the assets you need to defend yourself against the predators who want your money or your vote. You cannot look at the quality of logic or information by skimming. Just doesn’t happen. People who think it does are happy with ‘me too’ opinions based on their preferred thought leaders. Better hope they are right, because if you haven’t got an independent critical capability, you are at their mercy.