Since my blog post on Eli Pariser’s Ted talk about the filter bubble became quite popular and a lot of people seem to be interested in which 57 signals Google would use to filter search results I decided to extend the list from my article and list the signals I would use if I was google. It might not be 57 signals but I guess it is enough to get an idea:
- Our Search History.
- Our location – verfied -> more information
- the browser we use.
- the browsers version
- The computer we use
- The language we use
- the time we need to type in a query
- the time we spend on the search result page
- the time between selecting different results for the same query
- our operating system
- our operating systems version
- the resolution of our computer screen
- average amount of search requests per day
- average amount of search requests per topic (to finish search)
- distribution of search services we use (web / images / videos / real time / news / mobile)
- average position of search results we click on
- time of the day
- current date
- topics of ads we click on
- frequency we click advertising
- topics of adsense advertising we click while surfing other websites
- frequency we click on adsense advertising on other websites
- frequency of searches of domains on Google
- use of google.com or google toolbar
- our age
- our sex
- use of “i feel lucky button”
- do we use the enter key or mouse to send a search request
- do we use keyboard shortcuts to navigate through search results
- do we use advanced search commands (how often)
- do we use igoogle (which widgets / topics)
- where on the screen do we click besides the search results (how often)
- where do we move the mouse and mark text in the search results
- amount of typos while searching
- how often do we use related search queries
- how often do we use autosuggestion
- how often do we use spell correction
- distribution of short / general queries vs. specific / long tail queries
- which other google services do we use (gmail / youtube/ maps / picasa /….)
- how often do we search for ourself
Uff I have to say after 57 minutes of brainstorming I am running out of ideas for the moment. But this might be because it is already one hour after midnight!
If you have some other ideas for signals or think some of my guesses are totally unreasonable, why don’t you tell me in the comments?
Disclaimer: this list of signals is a pure guess based on my knowledge and education on data mining. Not one signal I name might correspond to the 57 signals google is using. In future I might discuss why each of these signals could be interesting. But remember: as long as you have a high diversity in the distribution you are fine with any list of signals.