Has Personalization gone amuck?
September 14, 2013Am I the only person who feels “over-personalized?”
The Wall Street Journal on-line now wants to “personalize” my news. I absolutely love being able to get my news on-line, but one of the biggest reasons I subscribe is to learn about topics that should or might be of interest to me–just like I did when I used to read print newspapers. Over-personalization could deprive me of that opportunity, or, at least, make it more difficult.
On top of that, the current trend to on-line “personalization” can misinterpret my interests. For example: On news.google.com (my home page), I read about the Kim Kardashian/Kanye West hook-up. Into my mind popped, “What a perfect couple!” (I do not mean that in a nice way…) and–don’t ask me what possessed me–but I clicked to see the article. For WEEKS thereafter, every time I looked at Google News, there was news about those two. Was I interested? No? But Google News thought I was.
Somewhere between no personalization and extreme personalization is the perfect solution, and I hope someone develops it soon.
What do you think?