Yandex Personalization: Advantages and Disadvantages
According to the algorithm of the Yandex search engine, personalization of results is a mandatory point. As a result, the user receives what they indeed wanted to see. Yandex analyzes everything the user does on the internet, which sites they visit most frequently, and what they primarily search for.
How is the Personalization of Results Ensured?
At the core of search personalization is the query entered and the user’s preferences. The following information is taken into account:
- Which web resources the user predominantly visits.
- What they have searched for on the internet recently or a couple of months ago.
- How suitable foreign sites are for them.
- What they are searching for right now.
After analyzing the information, the Yandex search engine provides the result that will be most useful and interesting to the specific person. To carry out an analysis of the general wishes of the user, all visitors are divided into categories based on similar queries. For the evaluation of current wishes, the current session or recent queries is used.
Search Suggestions
Information about which queries have been entered by the user in Yandex is taken into account along with search suggestions. The most frequently visited sites and what a person wants to find at the moment hold significant importance. Let’s consider three scenarios:
- In the suggestions, a person who has previously entered a certain query will find necessary phrases much more often than any other user.
- Sites that the user visits most frequently can be accessed with one mouse click from the suggestion window. Yandex remembers which result a person visits for a particular query. Next time, for convenience, it offers them these sites without a complete query. Suggestions can be deleted if desired — you need to go to Yandex settings for that.
- If a person typed a query for the first time, the list of suggestions will show a connection with the topic of the query. At the same time, it will differ from the standard list of suggestions.
How Does Personalization Affect?
Personalization is directly connected to the amount of traffic from the Yandex search results. For example, in the past, two people living in the same region could enter the same query and receive identical search results. However, in 2013, the “Kaliningrad” algorithm came into force, ensuring these same people receive different results.
Personalization can be traced in the following principles:
- Previously visited sites appear at the top positions of the search output, while ignored or abandoned ones are placed below.
- Phrases entered by the user appear in the list of suggestions.
- Word combinations placed in the search bar play an important role in forming the list of suggestions. The standard list is supplemented with important suggestions for the given topic (they will be in the front rows).
Can the Personalization Feature be Disabled?
To prevent Yandex from remembering and storing search history or compiling a list of the most interesting sites, it is possible to disable these functions and their display in the list of suggestions. To disable search by preferences, you need to leave empty the fields suggesting taking previously used queries into account and display favorite queries and sites in the list of suggestions. There is an option to refuse the recording of history.
However, if you disable these functions, sometimes personalization may still remain. To obtain results independent of anything, it is best to choose incognito mode. Then you just need to enter your query, which will definitely not be personalized. You can also use the Yandex.XML service for this purpose.
