A recent Harris interactive poll indicates that most people don't like that the ads on the websites they see are customized to their browsing/networking/purchasing and other habits.
What the hell?
Do these responders realize that the alternative is random advertisement? I love the idea that the browsing experience is customized/personalized to the user. Imagine a Google where the returns you get aren't just the regular algorithmic results that represent the oft gamed priority selection of, well, everybody? I know that Wikipedia mastermind Jimbo Wales is thinking of this exactly, which you can read all about in a great if somewhat dated article from Fast Company here.
It's not just for search. Personalization and customization are coming, and it's a good thing. A team of us have been working on building a presentation strategies workshop (not presentation skills; you can learn posture and projection somewhere else), and among the core considerations is to know your audience. How can you communicate effectively to a person or group that you don't know?
Who wants generic? Having no boundaries on what info you're exposed to sounds appealing, but the current delivery and consumption on most of these things is a masses-created intelligent design. As long as they're not over-policed, these systems work.
The supposed reasoning here for people not liking the customized browsing is that there's a "creepy factor" (that's right: creepy factor) surrounding the notion that Big Brother is out there minding your patterns and actions and distributing and reacting to that information. Read more in the Globe's article here. This kind of irrational fear is what will get things over-policed.
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