The Filter Bubble

By Eli Pariser

"On December 4, 2009," Says author Pariser, Google quietly made the decision to start "personalizing" search. What this will mean for.us peon users who were not asked our opinion, is now your search will conform more to your clickstream ie your already preconceived notions. That is the web will reinforce you stereotypes and faux news programs and further separate and isolate us. Serendipity as we know it is over. In this latest iteratiom of web 3.0 you will only find things that you already know. There will be no longer be  pesky opposing viewpoints to clog up our beautiful minds. Thanks Google.
This is the bubble that Pariser is talking about. Read all about it in this book.

57 signals which include things like where you are logging in from and what you searched last will now determine what results you will get.

Remember when you could rely on Google.to give you the most relevant sites based the eponymously named Page.rank system? Fugetaboutit! Google has gone round the bend and is now catering to the advertisers and not to the users. I can't wait for the next Google.to come along. And this from the guy who said he would always use Netscape and Alta Vista.

It was the same.story on Facebook when Pariser.realizes that his conservative friends had vanished from his Facebool feed. Again personalized, more like bowdlerized homogenized and pasturized.

You see its all about personalization and relevance. The idea of the smart.agent was pioneered by Negroponte. He invisioned a smart agent that would scour the tv chanels for you and produce a list of what it determined would be relevant to you. Today, companies like Google and Facebook wanna take this concept.to a whole new level.

Anyone remember Microsofts' Bob or Apples' Newton? Both of these mid-nineties smart agents were mega flops, therefore that whole digital butler concept went away right? Wrong says Eli Pariser. Todays smart agents act in the backround and subtly direct us most times without even our knowledge.

However Jeff Bezos seems to be making a good run at woth his personalization and recommendation service. I lile.to mess him up by searching for the.most.obscure antipodal things i can to keep him on his toes. And still now and then he gets it right and i.click on a recommendation of his. But don't do this.too much it only encourages them.

Cybernetics is the study of a self sustaining unit that tunes itself based on feedback.