It’s a real flattery to see Google now rank me as a more “famous” Dustin than The Dustin Hoffman. I really appreciate the Google algo :)

But in all seriousness, this raises an interesting question. How should Google rank results for people’s names? I’m lucky that a search for “Dustin Bachrach” hits my website first, but this doesn’t always have to be the case. Google’s algorithm could point your name to a website that’s slandering your name for all you know. It gets even trickier when you just cut down to a first or last name. When a user searches for “Bachrach” on Google are they more likely to want to go to the men’s clothing store, Bachrach or my website? When they search for “Dustin,” are they looking for me or the actor Dustin Hoffman? These are all interesting computer science questions that I’m sure the folks at Google are working constantly to figure out. My thoughts would be that the only way to present name searches in a reasonable manner is to do something like Google’s personalized search tracking. If a user is searching a lot for terms like “Mac,” “Software,” “Cocoa,” and “Rice,” then when they search for “Dustin” they’re more likely to be looking for me than Dustin Hoffman. And in reverse, if they are searching for “Academy Awards,” “Rain Man,” “Movie,” and “Acting,” than they probably are wanting Dustin Hoffman instead of me.

Privacy might be a concern, but these types of “predictive” searches based on search history are required to clear up ambiguities not only in names but on all search terms. If someone searches for “Oranges,” “Bananas,” and “Kiwis,” their following search for “Apples” should take them to pages about the apple fruit. In turn if they’ve been searching about computers, Steve Jobs, and the like, take them to Apple.com. In my opinion, I’m fine with letting Google track my private web history to solve these search questions.

What are your thoughts? Are you ok with Google’s personal search history?