Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles"
In this short TED Talk, the Executive Director of MoveOn.org reveals how website filters on sites like Facebook, Google and Yahoo News function to invisibly customize the information we see on the Internet. Google, for example, uses 57 different algorithms to tailor your search results according to their pre-conceived notion of what you want to see. This means that two people who Google "Egypt" will receive entirely different results to a query, and not necessarily receive important critical information if they have not shown an interest in such content previously. And so, the Internet is already not as free and open as we are led to believe.
http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html
I loved this talk by Eli. This really isn't new information, but his slides and commentary is very compelling. Personalization is not bad, so long as you can control the 57 signals - but people are lazy and corporations want to control what you see, so that won't happen. However, there is an option - http://duckduckgo.com They never capture personal data and they have a very good search engine. Check them out.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I like it already...
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