How will personalized search affect SEO?

We spend a lot of time thinking about how to tweak links, apply for a link bait scheme and alter the way our sites appear to Google. But one of the new search features slowly coming down the pipe is personalization of search. Now a whole new set of factors play in the SEO space, thankfully a lot of our efforts in terms of Social Marketing are going to take effect. But the question remains, if you are a user of personalized search and look for something basic like a printer. You may no longer get the vast results that help in your selection process. For example if you are a fan of HP and Epson products and visit their site all the time, your searches will be augmented with Epson and HP, where normally they may not be relevant. This is a very interesting challenge for Google, however even a greater challenge for someone trying to break into a very competitive industry.

Search has usually leveled the playing field between the titans and the small mom and pop sites out there. Can it be that we are one step further along in stopping the Entrepreneur from growing? Now it will be so very important to have a strong brand!

Just a random thought for the day!