OT: What is the Internet Hiding From You?

[Bryan O'Neal]

This has been both obvious and very welcome for years now. I first
noticed when I went from being a mysql / ms access dba to an db2 dba.
The same sql questions started putting ibm sites in top within a few
weeks when before they would have been in page 10.
When I went back to being a pure mysql dba mysql.com became the top
answers again. It only seems to take 50 or so similar queries to
retrain it.
Oh and they shard results based on geo location. They assume that
since you live in phx arizona that when you search for vehicle
emissions you actually want stuff related to maracopia county arizona
vehicle emissions testing requirements and services and not say...
California testing standards or something on careers green policies. I
think the filtering works very well and enjoy it as it makes useful
assumptions that are easily circumvented with refined search terms.

On 5/17/11, Sam Kreimeyer <skreimey at gmail.com> wrote:
> A few years ago I was on a forum and typed a message to someone in Spanish.
> When I loaded the next page, I suddenly found myself bombarded with ads for
> Mexican rap albums. I hadn't made any searches or clicked any links related
> to these things; the server identified the language used in the form input
> and adjusted my ads accordingly. There's quite a lot of money in keeping
> tabs on what you look for and redirecting you to particular products.
>
> I would be very surprised if Google *weren't* doing this.
> On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 10:09 AM, Dazed_75 <lthielster at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I have seen this too but never really thought about why.  Great talk and a
>> concern for everyone IMHO.
>>
>>   On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 8:25 AM, Ariel Gold <arielqgold at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>>  I just watched this TED Talk and found it very interesting, basically
>>> highlighting how web companies customize services for us with the result
>>> that we are trapped in a "filter bubble" and don't get exposed to the
>>> same
>>> information.
>>>
>>> http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector?blend=3&ob=5#p/u/0/B8ofWFx525s
>>>
>>> I sometimes realized while on the phone googling with someone that we got
>>> different first links, but I discounted it that I was searching from a
>>> linux
>>> box.
>>>
>>> I was surprised to see how two different people, based on their
>>> interests,
>>> got dramatically different results about Egypt when the protests were
>>> going
>>> on (for some the protests didn't even show up!)  (at 2:38)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Dazed_75 a.k.a. Larry
>>
>> The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain
>> occasions,
>> that I wish it always to be kept alive.
>>   - Thomas Jefferson
>>
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>

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