Real-time personalization and historical personalization

This is a beta feature according to Algolia’s Terms of Service (“Beta Services”).

Modern personalization combines historical insights with real-time adaptability to create intelligent experiences that:

• Recognize individual user preferences across time
• Respond to immediate user intent
• Provide contextually relevant results instantly
• Evolve with continued user interaction

Two complementary approaches

By combining historical and real-time personalization approaches, you can transform your search experience from a static tool into a dynamic system that drives engagement and conversion at every stage of the user journey.

Historical personalization

Historical personalization builds a comprehensive understanding of users over time by analyzing patterns across multiple sessions.

Key characteristics:

• Creates persistent user profiles based on long-term behavior
• Reveals established preferences and interests
• Increases in value as users return and generate more data
• Enables predictive search results based on historical patterns

Best for: Returning users with established interaction history

Example: An ecommerce platform surfacing products similar to what a user has purchased in previous months, reflecting their consistent style preferences.

Real-time personalization

Real-time personalization captures and responds to a user’s immediate context and goals within a single visit, adapting in real-time to their current needs.

Key characteristics:

• Analyzes behavior within the current session only
• Adapts search results based on immediate actions
• Works for first-time visitors with no previous history
• Responds quickly to shifting user intent

Best for: All users1, including first-time visitors

Example: A content website adapting search results based on topics the user has viewed in the last few minutes, even if they’ve never visited before.

Strategic comparison

Aspect	Historical personalization	Real-time personalization
User coverage	Returning users with history	All users, including first-time visitors
Data timeline	Hours or days of interaction	Seconds or minutes within current session
Implementation complexity	Requires user identification system	Works without persistent user identification
Response to change	Gradually adapts to evolving preferences	Immediately responds to current needs
Personalization depth	Rich, based on established patterns	Focused on immediate context and intent

Real-time personalization will activate only for new users, while historical personalization will apply for returning users.

Maximize impact through combined approaches

The most effective personalization strategies take advantage of both approaches:

• Use real-time personalization to provide immediate value to all users
• Layer historical personalization for returning users to deepen relevance
• Create a continuous experience that bridges individual sessions
• Balance immediate context with long-term user understanding

By implementing both approaches, you create a comprehensive personalization strategy that serves users at every stage of their relationship with your platform.

How Advanced Personalization combines both approaches

By default, Advanced Personalization supports historical personalization. Activate real-time personalization to enhance and complement the historical approach.