Google Log Data
November 5, 2008
Robin Bal’s ‘Why Does Google Log Details of Search Queries’ is an interesting post. You can find the November 4, 2008, write up here. Robin Bal’s approach is to summarize Google’s statements about log data. If you are unfamiliar with these, I recommend reading this article. For me, the most important point in the post was this comment:
One of Consumer Watchdog’s complaints surrounds Chrome’s navigation bar, which can be used to enter a Web site address or a search query. The Google Suggest feature built into the browser relays searches back to Google as you type, in hopes of anticipating your desires. Brian Rakowski, product manager for Chrome, said queries sent to Google through autosuggest feature do include data like a user’s IP address. But Google logs just 2 percent of the data brought in through Google Suggest to improve the feature, Rakowski said, and anonymizes the data within 24 hours.You’re flying blind without that information, so we have to collect a little bit,’ he said.
Robin Bal does not reference any of the Google patent documents. A number of these provide more detail on the data model used to house usage data and the methods employed to convert individual clicks into useful values for other system processes. Nevertheless, the round up is helpful and depicts Google in a generally positive manner.
Stephen Arnold, November 5, 2008
Comments
One Response to “Google Log Data”
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
Curious that Chrome’s smart address bar does not “include data like a user’s IP address,” yet Google’s back-end “anonymizes the data within 24 hours.” Why anonymize if it’s anonymous?
It sounds to me like Google’s definition of “data like a user’s IP address” doesn’t include information about the Google user logged in at the time a search was performed, which, of course, is even more helpful to individually identify the human being who performed that specific search. If this is the case then Google has chosen to answer this question in a very misleading way.