Google's vice president of search products and user experience Marissa Mayer has said that personalisation is the future for general web search.Speaking at the Search Engines Strategies (SES) Conference & Expo in San Jose yesterday, Ms Mayer suggested that in ten to 15 years search sites will have a greater understanding of their searchers.
Search engines will know where their users are based and what it is they like, she predicted.
According to CNet News, Ms Mayer highlighted the success of social networking site Facebook, saying: "The type of information [Facebook is] building about the social graph between people is something that is intelligent and will be particularly useful in the future."
Indeed, she also revealed to the delegates in the crowd that Facebook was her favourite non-Google product.
Looking to the future, the vice president indicated that Google has plans to let searchers know when their results are personalised and offer ways in which they can switch between these and default results.
During her presentation, Ms Mayer also demonstrated Google Maps on her iPhone, highlighting some of the services Google provides in addition to general web search.
Earlier in the week, Ask.com's chief executive officer Jim Lanzone addressed the SES conference. He discussed the challenges his company faces in competing with other search engines.
The US conference was co-organised and co-hosted by president of Searchwise Chris Sherman and search engine expert Danny Sullivan.
