First off, Congrats to Search Engine Land on a front page story on Google News.

Today I went over to news.google.com and saw something rather impressive above the fold: a link to a search engine land article. The article was about “Personalized Search” so I immediately thought that the article was there targeting me specifically.

I logged out of my Google account and reloaded the page.

Still there. Here’s a screenshot and a link to the article entitled “Personalized Results the new Normal”.

So now I’m wondering: Am i still getting personalized results even though I’ve logged out? Surely Google still knows my IP. Is big brother still watching?

It’s an interesting question considering Schmidt’s recently publisized stance on privacy:

“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

Yea – tell that to the Jews of Hitler’s Germany.

I think I finally understand Google’s Motto of “Don’t Be Evil.” They’re not referring to their actions. No. Rather “don’t be evil” is a command to you, Google Users. Don’t be evil; in fact, don’t do anything that any government official anywhere may construe as evil now or at anytime in the future.

Caveat Quaeror

Let the searcher beware.