13 replies to this topic

[Floppin]

I'm sure a few of you know about this, but this is still a pretty awesome speech at TED.

[mmmbeans]

interesting, scary stuff.

[thatlookseasy]

Good video on an interesting topic. Only downside was the youtube title made it sound like a histrionic conspiracy theory

[Tensor]

All about ad money.

Google and Facebook control almost all of it right now. Something like 70% of all ads viewed online are Google ads and 16% are Facebook. Everyone else fights for the remaining 14%.

[natty]

Good stuff, interesting to think about. It might seem scary at face value but it's simply a result of these companies trying to give you what they think you want. Internet companies have been trying to do this from the beginning with customized homepages and such. The thing is that technology has progressed to where they can do customization without any conscious input from you.

It's not an inherently bad thing but there's some deeper physiological overtones to it. People always tend to revert to their little bubbles no matter how much more is available to them. Google and Facebook just want to give you what you want, but people in general rarely know what they 'really' want.

[mmmbeans]

it's not bad in a vacuum but combined with human laziness... yea.


it's marginalization and consolidation of information which will lead to significantly less demand for important information.

google and facebook aren't innocent in this either... they don't "just want to give you what you want." they want to streamline your consumption to the point where everything becomes that last 5 feet before the cashier in a store.

"ooh, maybe i should buy that!, ooh i've been meaning to pick one of those up. ooh, you know who would love that?"

not my internet plz.

[natty]

Not that I think Google is a bunch of choir boys, but it's in their best interests to give you what you want. They want to appease their advertisers but the user always comes first.

[mmmbeans]

you aren't the user, you're the product. they don't give a shiat about you because the infrastructure is set up now that there are few viable alternatives.

should i have to surf through fuging proxies to retain any semblance of anonymity on the net?

I'm not saying that google is going to destroy us all or anything but convenience makes people stupid. Now, people want that and i understand... i don't. that's apparently too fuging bad.

[natty]

they don't give a shiat about you because the infrastructure is set up now that there are few viable alternatives.

Yeah that's the caveat, was thinking it while typing.

There was never any anonymity on the internet, some things have just become easier.

I totally understand what you're saying and mostly agree, just arguing the other side. The speaker in the OP kind of pointed out the solution - transparency and accountability. The masses can be idiots as long as there's some non-idiots speaking out. User or product, doesn't matter, they still want to keep you.

[thatlookseasy]

I had a similar thought the other day listening to Pandora. When I put in one of my favorite bands, it invariably plays a bunch of stuff I like, and even occasionally stuff I haven't heard before. But its not really helpful for discovering truly different, new music because all its doing is playing stuff related to what I originally wanted to hear

[mmmbeans]

i have a theory that no matter what you put into pandora everything eventually comes back to that fat hawaiian singing "somewhere over the rainbow"


haven't hit it on my metal station... YET.

[Razzy]

It's just business. You agree to use their product, so of they want to take the personal information you're supplying and sell it so be it. Anytime you like something on facebook or do a google search you're broadcasting information about your demographic and that is very valuable.

[pstall]

sort of a strange inverse supply and demand. or what i call the apple effect. apple is awesome at creating the illusion of the demand and then its on.

kinda reminds me of Minority Report where Cruise is walking thru a mall and the ads pop up nearby and call him by name and talk about HIS interests.

spooky.

[CarolinaKid704]

Chew on this....Listen to the beginning and ending of his speech and tell me that this isn't just an other version update from AOL. It kinda took me back to that time where you felt like you could search everything but more so talk to anyone. The future of information isn't in a news article, but, live conversation with some yahoo out in Europe interested in your same topic of choice. Your Anderson Cooper in the front lines, your Colin Cowherd sports talk...a international agenda..................FFffuuuu Venom is right.