Warning: free access to the sum total of human knowledge is under threat.
We all know that the ‘democracy of online search’ has levelled the playing field for smaller businesses — we can now compete against the big boys by employing smart content marketing tactics.
In the past Gatekeepers (such as editors, publishers and others in power) were the filters of information. They had a big say in what information you and I could access. And they were the main intermediaries between brands and customers.
Then along came the web and we gradually gained an unlimited access to the sum total of knowledge via online search. Or did we?
Conspiracy theory alert!
Eli Pariser’s recent TED talk highlights how a new breed of Gatekeeper — the online algorithm — is manipulating what information we see in the search results. He calls this phenomenon the Filter Bubble.
If you and I do an identical search on Google we will get different results, because Google takes into account ’57 signals’ (where you are, your browser, what you searched for and bought) when deciding what results to serve. You are unwittingly influencing your future universe.
Facebook and others are also filtering what we see using intelligence based on our past behaviour and geo-demographics.
I am concerned about this development. Those behind The New Gatekeepers need to balance how to give us relevant search returns with the ethics of advanced personalisation.
I agree there’s a difficult issue there. The principle of individualised search has more to do with commercial opportunities (targeted ads etc) than utility. I would prefer equality of search results (ie everyone gets the same results) as a default but with the option to personalise… I don’t want to be told what I’m interested in without that option
Thanks for your thoughts, Chris.
I certainly would prefer to have some kind of control over what is ‘personalised’ and what isn’t. After all, past behaviour is not always the best indicator of future actions and aspirations.
Ewwww. This is just a tad worrying. If the big guys are doing that every time we use their site(s) for a search, surely we should be told about that?
I’ll have to watch the video again, but I am pretty sure Eli Pariser talks directly to people from Google and Facebook, who are in the audience. Hopefully they are taking notice.
I guess there’s no reason for them to “tell” us that they’re doing.
We use their services basically at no direct monetary cost to ourselves, so it’s really up to them how they deliver the information to us. When we sign-up to facebook, or go to Google.com, we have little place to tell them how they should run it. We might think that we do since we’re humans and think we’re amazing and all that.
I think much of the “personalisation” makes sense, but yes, being able tweak and determine the paths of the algorithms is an important next step.
Paul.
Hi Paul, good thoughts, thanks.
It’s true we get a huge amount of value from Google and Facebook ‘for free’ — but of course the data they collect has massive value to their advertisers/partners. It is a trade off, I suppose…
We just have to trust that those who established such positions of power are responsible — monitor their service developments.