Targeted ads. They have an air of Big Brother to them. Search for one product, and suddenly similar items appear in ads on every website you visit. Like digital sales stalkers, these algorithms deliver personalizd ad results in a way that smells of privacy invasion.
But, this post isn’t about diving into that controversial swamp, it’s about the upside of personalized recommendation algorithms.
There’s too much noise out there. In 1991, there was one website. Today, there are over 4 billion web pages. That doesn’t include social media, podcasts, or YouTube videos, emails, direct messages. Twitter alone generates 500 million tweets per day. There is a content overload problem, and we’re navigating this ocean completely blind.
A better noise filter will exist one day, and it will help us curate content that fits our specific (and often changing) needs or interests. It’s the only way we’ll cut through the clutter.
With that in mind, there’s a chance that the same targeted ad technology used to track our behavior can be leveraged into powerful discovery tools. While unnerving, it may be the first signs of the filter that our digital selves will need.
As Commissioner Gordon said, “It is not the digital filter that we want, but it is the one that we need.”
A Thought Shot for Monday morning.