Tired of getting irrelevant search results when you type in a generic term in the search engine box? Gone are the days when search engines throw up a couple of million results for a search string. Google has pioneered the Personalized Search feature which keeps a record of searches conducted by you and provides you results based on your past searches. So for example, if you are searching for public schools and have searched for Kansas before, the first few search results will show you Public Schools in Kansas. This intelligent search logic helps in reducing the huge number of search results and is most likely to provide you relevant searches at the shortest possible time.

The personalized search option has been in beta phase for some time before joining the ranks of regular features at Google. You can now access it via any of your Google service accounts (such as Gmail, Adwords or another other service) and choose the option from the Manage Account page. The personalized feature is currently available for users of Google.com and thirty nine other Google domains which might include services or regional domains. Personalization of search will also increase the number of searches done via Google as users would prefer to cross check results of searches at Google even if they are using another search engine. This feature is sure to drive up the search volumes at Google.

The personalized feature has been appreciated by many users and the ease of managing this service is also one of the reasons why users are opting for it readily. You can deactivate this feature at any time by either putting it on hold or by deleting the personalization option. Google removes your entire bookmark list if you decide to opt out of this service. A higher level of security for access to personalization feature is another enhancement at Google.

The personalization service however, does have a few issues which might result in incorrect results or might result in not being able to find the bookmarked link. One of the main issues comes up when you want to refer to a news item from Google news and save it as a bookmark. Since news articles at Google are not maintained beyond 30 days, the link is not going to be available for your viewing after the period lapses. However, you can be rest assured that someone somewhere in Google Labs is working frantically to sort this issue at the earliest!

The book marking feature of Google Personalized feature has been compared with Yahoos MyWeb feature and the response has been in Yahoos favour. Yahoo MyWeb allows you to save complete text information on a site whereas Google allows you to save the title, URL and notes only. This reduces the available content which a search engine can search through thus weakening the power of the search which may not show all relevant searches. Improvement on this feature is likely to have a direct impact on the number of users who sign up for this service.

If you are an avid Google user and swear by the results thrown up by the search engine, the personalization service is something you must try out. Not only does it promise to save time by reviewing irrelevant results, it also helps you get an edge over your peers in being better read and well informed.