Nick Fox, a director of product management who looks after ads on Googles search site, said the company was now testing the use of more search queries in its ad targeting. He did not describe how it was doing that. But Internet experts said that it was most likely using its cookies.
Mr. Fox said that Googles approach was different from what Yahoo, AOL and others call behavioral targeting. Those companies look at what a user did a few days earlier to show them ads about the same topic today. Google says it believes that search engine advertising is most effective if it relates to what the user has most recently searched for.
We are trying to understand what the user is trying to do right now, Mr. Fox said. In some cases, those queries are ambiguous, so you need a little more context.
Googles previous system of looking at a users immediate past query was not useful enough, he said. It is probably not just the previous query that matters, Mr. Fox said. You want to know if the user is still doing the same thing. You wouldnt want to go back a month. You wouldnt want to go back a day. But you may want to go back two or three queries.

Specifically, the company believes examining a full sequence of user queries can lead to more useful results. Today, the company only keeps track of the immediately prior search, but often users use search engines to explore subject areas broadly, said Satya Nadella, senior vice president of Microsoft's search, portal and advertising platform group, at the Search Engine Strategies conference.
"I believe this notion of understanding user intent--being able to analyze (search queries) and come up with search patterns and use them to shape the search experience--is one of the most important areas for us," Nadella said.

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