Google and Key Stroke Logging
September 4, 2008
Auto suggest is a function that looks at what you are typing in a search box. The agent displays words and phrases that offer suggestions. Sometimes called auto complete, you arrow down to the phrase you want and hit enter. The agent runs the query with the word or phrase you selected. This function turned up a couple of years ago on the Yahoo AllTheWeb.com search system. Now, it’s migrated to Google. You will want to read Ina Fried’s “Chrome Let’s Google Log User Keystrokes”, published on September 4, 2008, to get some additional information about this feature. Her point is that when you or I select a suggested search phrase, that selection is noted and sent to Google. For me, the most interesting point in her article was:
Provided that users leave Chrome’s auto-suggest feature on and have Google as their default search provider, Google will have access to any keystrokes that are typed into the browser’s Omnibox, even before a user hits enter. Google intends to retain some of that data even after it provides the promised suggestions. A Google representative told sister site CNET News.com that the company plans to store about two percent of that data, along with the IP address of the computer that typed it.
When I read statements assuring me that an organization will store “about two percent of that data”, I think about phrases such as “Your check is in the mail”. Based on my research, the substantive value of lots of clicks is that “two percent”. Here’s why. Most queries follow well worn ruts. If you’ve been to Pompei, you can see grooves cut in the roadway. Once a cart or chariot is in those grooves, changing direction is tough. What’s important, therefore, is not the ones in the grooves. What’s important are those carts that get out of the grooves. As Google’s base of user data grows, the key indicators are variances, deltas, and other simple calculations that provide useful insights. After a decade of capturing queries about pop stars, horoscopes, and PageRank values, that “two percent” is important. I ask, “How do I know what happens to that other 98 percent of the usage data?” The check is in the mail.
Stephen Arnold, September 4, 2008
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