Sort of interesting, no need to watch the entire clip, the first 3 minutes or so sums it up.
It is about how search engines and social networking sites filter content based on different criteria.
I have found it to be true because I get very different search results using the same engine if I am on a different computer or in a different part of the area.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxP-bezsWaQ
Here is a link to an article about it, followed by the article:
http://thefranchisehound.com/2011/05...bble%E2%80%9D/
The Filter Bubble
The book, “The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You,” explains how web giants like Facebook, AOL and Google have created personalized search results and ad campaigns based on what they think each individual user would want. The claim is that it allows users to find the things online that they would otherwise need to search for. In reality, it allows advertisers to pinpoint their customer base to make money off the consumer and for the web host to make money off of the advertiser.
Pariser is using the book as an awakening to consumers – many who otherwise would be blind to what’s going on around them. He explains that the so-called filter bubble is invisible. A person is only seeing what their internet is showing them; they can’t see what others are seeing on their computers – something that could be totally and completely different. According to Pariser in an interview he gave to CNN, “A couple of years ago, when you Googled something, everyone would get the same result. Now, when I’ve done these experiments, you can really get these dramatically different results. One person Googles and sees a lot of news about protests and the other person gets travel agents talking about traveling to Egypt.”
How Facebook and Google are Using Your Information
When it comes to Facebook he explains that the News Feed is largely based on what a user has “liked” or clicked on in the past. If you’re more prone to looking at the funny photos and videos that friends post, an article someone posted about the war in Afghanistan may never show up on your feed. It’s like Facebook is saying, “We know you better than you,” according to Pariser.
Google has been storing information on their users for years – aggregating data from searches, Maps, Gmail and their other services. They supposedly use 57 signals to personalize web searches (even when you’re not logged in), including the computer you’re using, your browser, and your location. Google is keeping quiet about the other 54. Pariser gives this very telling example of Google’s personalization, “I had friends Google ‘BP’ when the oil spill was happening. These are two women who were quite similar in a lot of ways. One got a lot of results about the environmental consequences of what was happening and the spill. The other one just got investment information and nothing about the spill at all.”
Why Does the Filter Bubble Really Matter?
So what? – you may say. So the internet is being personalized to my likes and interests. Why is that such a bad thing? Eli Pariser says you just lose those unexpected discoveries, like stumbling onto an article that you otherwise would never have encountered. He likens it to watching specific news stations on TV. “It’s one thing when you turn on MSNBC or Fox News. When you do that, you know what the editing rule is – what kind of things you’d expect to see there and what kind of things you’d expect to be edited out. But with a Facebook news feed or Google News, you don’t know who they think you are. You don’t know what’s been edited out. It can really distort your view of the world.”
Will this revelation change the way that businesses advertise online or how users surf the internet? Probably not. The things that Pariser reveals in his book may be eye-opening to consumers, and it’s good to not be kept in the dark about how information on your demographic, internet use, and personal information is being used. But I’m not sure anyone would be truly shocked by this. Any website with advertising is going to show you ads local to your current location as well as focused on topics of which you’ve previously searched.
The depth of the information that these sites already have on users may be a little unsettling and begs the questions to businesses of how this could (or already has) changed the scope of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Is all of that keyword placement and specific HTML coding all for naught? Are web results really organic anymore? The Filter Bubble has certainly changed the way consumers are being marketed to, we just wonder how much further it will go in the future.
Internet filters
