You make excellent points, and I'd like to add one more:
Google's personalized search is just not as good as their unpersonalized search.
The time I was Googling for suitable Xmas presents for my Grandma should not influence my searches for valentines gifts.
Incidentally, am I the only one to mentally filter out search results that have the avatar of an online "friend" recommending them? Is that link was ranked highly just because someone I've never met tweeted it?
Google's personalized search is just not as good as their unpersonalized search.
The time I was Googling for suitable Xmas presents for my Grandma should not influence my searches for valentines gifts.
Incidentally, am I the only one to mentally filter out search results that have the avatar of an online "friend" recommending them? Is that link was ranked highly just because someone I've never met tweeted it?