There is no shortage of Google or iPhone killers each and every year, but this time Google is not on the receiving end of the challenge. By the introduction of personalize search (even when users are not logged in), Google has thrown a wrench into the world of search engine optimization; or at least so it would seem.
There have been numerous forum threads and articles about how the changes that Google is introducing into their algorithm (e.g. personalized search, universal search, real-time search) will be the end of search engine optimization. As everyone knows, media is not prone to hyperbole or sensationalism, so the predictions must be true. They are not.
As circumstances are wont to do, they change. And with every such change come challenges, as well as opportunities. In the case of Google’s SERP changes, there is no difference. Even though personalized search will impact rankings for certain searches, it will just as likely create opportunities to drive traffic to websites. This very blog post has been, in part, created in response to how Google handles real-time search and will most likely produce results beyond the reach of search engine optimization.
So, we would like to ask the countless bloggers and forum participants to stay away from sensationalism as much as possible, and simply focus on how these (or any) changes produce opportunities, as well as to confine the dialogue to solutions to the challenges faced by Internet marketers.
