Something that most people miss is that at least part of what makes Google search so good (and Bing for that matter) _is_ the tracking.
Without the ability to track some user behaviors the quality of the search results would be impacted.
For example, if you click on a link and then immediately hit Back and perform a different query, you can infer that the link wasn't all that useful.
I don't like the idea of Google being "creepy" either, but I'm gladly willing to send them at least some of my data if it means I can get a better experience.
Comments
Something that most people miss is that at least part of what makes Google search so good (and Bing for that matter) _is_ the tracking.
Without the ability to track some user behaviors the quality of the search results would be impacted.
For example, if you click on a link and then immediately hit Back and perform a different query, you can infer that the link wasn't all that useful.
I don't like the idea of Google being "creepy" either, but I'm gladly willing to send them at least some of my data if it means I can get a better experience.
Yes, but that specific example (in-session behaviors) is fine. What I don't like is linking that with the contents of my Gmail etc