VortexDNA has just announced that the effectiveness of the MyWebDNA plug-in has been tested, proven, and independently validated. The key line from the findings is this:

VortexDNA technology has proven its ability to increase click rates by up to 14%–an increase that, for a company like Google, could translate to additional revenue of more than $300 million per year.

This news is huge.

VortexDNA is a company that started with a hypothesis: if you can find a way to mathematically represent purpose and values, you can map that onto virtually anything.

The hypothesis grew into a technology: the MyWebDNA plug-in for the Firefox browser that circles the two most relevant Google search results for you, based on your unique purpose and values.

Eight months and 15,000 searches later, the hypothesis has proven to be true:

…users are 14% more likely to click on a Google SearchTM link with a high VortexDNA relevance score than on one with a low score.

Think about the implications of this—not just for Google or VortexDNA, but for what it means about how we live our lives and the decisions we make. This research shows that two people with the same purpose and values are likely to find the same things relevant, even if the things themselves don’t seem to relate to values.

If I share the same values as you, I am likely to choose the same pizza parlor.

Would you have expected that to be the result? I know I had my share of questions along the way. What, exactly, does a pizza parlor have to do with my purpose in life? And, of course, the reverse is not true: just because two people like the same pizza parlor doesn’t mean they share the same values.

These findings show us how powerfully purpose and values affect our lives without us even being aware of it. They show us that our most mundane decisions are colored by who we really are and that which we hold most dear.

To me, they reinforce the vital importance of understanding what truly matters to us. So frequently, we think that this sort of deep introspection is something that we’ll do when we have time, that first we have to do the laundry or finish our homework or pay the bills. Worrying about purpose and values is for hippies.

But if everything in your world is filtered by who you are, wouldn’t it make sense to try to understand that first? Who I am affects how I do the laundry. Who I am affects how I do my homework. Who I am affects how I pay the bills. If it’s inescapable and omnipresent, wouldn’t it be to your benefit to be as aware of it as possible?

The MyWebDNA findings have tremendous business implications, of course. But, to me, their most powerful message is about people. Do you think your purpose affects your everyday choices? I do, but I’m only one opinion, and I’m deeply interested in knowing: what do you think?

This entry was posted on Monday, May 14th, 2007 at 10:40 am and is filed under Relevance, Search, Google. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.