How does Google Incorporate the Hawthorn Effect

First off, what is the “Hawthorn Effect” ?

The Hawthorn Effect refers to the proneness of people to work harder and perform better when they are participants in an experiment. It was found that many people change their behavior due to the attention they are receiving from researchers..

The Hawthorne Effect was first discovered in 1924 by researchers at Harvard University who were studying the relationship between productivity and the work environment. Conducting these experiments at the Hawthorn Plant of Western Electric in Chicago found that productivity increased due to attention from the research team and not because of changes to the experimental variable.

Wait, I thought this article was about Google in the 21st century?
Did you know that Google is watching you? Quick, go put some pants on! No, not that way, get your mind out of the gutter! Google is watching you in a user behavioral and beneficial manner. Google is working on several products and projects that will eventually change how the search engine will respond to your interaction. The process is for Google to capture your request for information and measure the response to the data it provides you. Google obtains key data that helps them understand how to better manipulate the results that are being returned to you by measuring your responses. There are several beta tools currently in place testing to help them determine their course of action and refine their process in an effort to produce a better user experience for.
The “Web History” utility that is now available to all users of Google Search. Collects information about the sites you visit and uses it to generate a better response to your queries. This utility contains…

1) The ability to view and manage your web activity – search across the full text of the pages you’ve visited, including Google Searches, web pages, images and news stories.

2) Get search results that are more personalized and based on the things you’ve searched for on Google and the sites you’ve visited.

3) Get reports on your trends and web activity – how many searches did you conduct and at what time of the day. Which sites do you frequent the most?


Want to learn more about this utility? Then visit google.com/psearch
So, How will This Collected Web History affect the Search Engine industry?
Well, on its own, or combined with other beta tools in the making, it will help Google provide you with results that you want to see the most, and it will help remove items that you are not interested in seeing. In other words, Google is now tailoring the search results to each indivdual person searching on the web. Joe will get different resutls than Jan when they both search the exact same keyword.
Let’s experiment?
Put on your google goggles! Begin by creating a user account with Google. Then turn Web History on for a week or so, and chase your tail looking at keywords that are specific to the ranking of your website or a site you are maintaining. Check several times a day, closing and relaunching your browser each time you check. Eventually you are going to see a message near the top of the window that the results of your search are being influenced by… you guessed it… Web History. Pay attention to where your site is ranking with Web History turned on.

Now, after a week of allowing “Web History” to collect some information… go to your google account and turn it off, and check your page positions on Google for the same Keywords? Did you see any difference? You betcha! Google is watching you and capturing your behavior and they are manipulating your search results to match your expectations and what they perceive is your preference based on the “experiences” they have collected from you. If Web History perceives that Pink Watches by a particular manufacturer are important to you in the majority of your searches, they will bubble to the top of the page while other Pink watches by different manufactures will sink lower and lower.

Is it the end of the Search Engine Optimizing Industry?

Most likely not, factors that will make one site’s links above another will most likely not be completely limited to the users interaction and preference in the future. Traditional factors we all know and pursue like content and page ranking will continue to play a part in winning the position on the page.

Will it end here?

I doubt it! There’s at least two more prominent areas where Google can capture user preferences and then modify the result set to meet their expectations, and they are actively testing or running programs to do exactly that right now.