This and other such hypothetical questions may be in the future of Google searches according to Eric Schmidt, the company's chief executive officer. Google currently offers an opt-in personalized search facility that collects data from each of your searches over the last 18 months in order to mine this data and return more personalized results. Google says that it will be possible in the future to allow them to use data collected over a longer period of time to narrow your search results even further. Currently, the data collected is anonymized after 18 months but Google is considering allowing it's users to define the length of time that the data is associated to themselves. The more data they have to mine, the more likely they are able to answer your queries with something relevant to you, and the more likely the possibility of answering the hypothetical questions someday down the road. I think this is potentially a great leap forward, especially if it's only at the users request. I've already stated in a previous post that I could care less about data that is collected about my purchases or browsing habits particularly if it's going to make my experience online better, there is a line to be drawn when it comes to financial or other personal information of course. BBC article here.
