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The news that Google "personalises" up to one in five web searches using our web history, location and online contacts is a rare insight into the mighty search engine’s mysterious mind.
The tweaks have been in place since December and should help us track down information we want more easily, though the use of personal contacts from the likes of Gmail and Google Buzz is a bit of a privacy headache. 
It is unusual to get this sort of precise figure out of a search engine developer – Google is notoriously reluctant to reveal exactly how its ‘crawler’ (a robot which finds and retrieves web pages) chooses who’ll be top of the list. While working on the web I’ve heard even the most knowledgeable tecchies admit “We’re just not sure exactly how it works.”
In its defence, the world’s most popular search engine now has over 70 blogs, including an official webmaster one to help site owners boost their position in search results. But for many working online there’s still guesswork involved, probably because Google is evolving all the time and multiple variables determine where you rank.
When I type “How does Google work” into Google, the first result is an old April Fool’s article (from Google) claiming that their search technology is run by pigeons. At least our enigmatic mistress has a sense of humour.

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Submitted by Louise Ridley

Not necessarily

Fri, 2010-03-26 01:02
Shadowwolf

"The news that Google "personalises" up to one in five web searches using our web history, location and online contacts is a rare insight into the mighty search engine’s mysterious mind."

Ahhh but if one were to block Googles various tracking systems etc then it will not be personalising any searches :D