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Google: we don't know enough about you – yet

Google reckons its servers will one day hold so much personal information that its users will be told what job or social excursion best suits their needs.

Last week the search site was only at an “early stage” of gathering personal data, according to chief executive Eric Schmidt, speaking to a media briefing reported by The Financial Times.

But he said the roll out of better algorithms and personalised services would help build a vast database of personal data, fit for eventually solving intimate user dilemmas like “What job shall I take?” and “What shall I do tomorrow?”

The database, comprising details of users’ social and personal preferences, will allow Google to expand further into personalised advertisements, which promise the highest returns.

It is already being populated through the likes of Google Recommendations, which asks for a user’s personal needs before listing results of products or services.

Yet it was recently launched iGoogle which Schmidt tipped to be the most important tool in achieving the company’s next critical stage of gathering people’s data.

“We cannot even answer the most basic questions because we don’t know enough about you. That is the most important aspect of Google’s expansion,” he told reporters in London.

Updates to iGoogle allow users to create widgets – interactive information portals - without needing HTML skills, to complement their self-published content and sharing of widgets.

Users can tag their page with their favourite blogs, photos, songs, news providers and upcoming events, giving Google a unique insight in the lives of people in over 40 countries, speaking 25 languages.

Similar in spirit to Twitter, the social media darling, a new feature to iGoogle – DailyMe - lets users post snippets about their everyday lives.

Last month, Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search products and user experience, told CNet that iGoogle had become the company’s fastest-growing product of 2006.

Separately, to arm Google with even more of their personal data, users can action their Web-surfing history to be stored, including what they click on, in return for tailored search results.

May 30, 2007
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