Good Morning: 'Smart' technology proves to be good for advertising game
Amazon.com sent me an e-mail last week. The message asked if I would be interested in shopping for running shoes, and provided a link to their store. I thought to myself that, indeed, I would be interested in running shoes. I am on the track and field team and can always use some new tread for those long runs. Then I thought: How did they know? At that moment, I realized that Amazon knew more about me than I knew about me. It knew what I wanted to buy before I knew what I wanted to buy. I began to wonder what else it knew. Was I going to get an e-mail from the site telling me where I could get milk the second my carton in the fridge ran dry? Or what about an e-mail advertising cold medicine when I wake up with a sore throat? This idea scared me, so I opened up iTunes to clear my head with some music. I selected a relaxing song, and below my selection it decided to list five other songs it thought I would like to hear at that moment. The scariest part? I did want to hear them. I logged onto YouTube after class to participate in the infamous college ritual of laughing at utterly pointless pieces of video. But before I could search for any videos, I was greeted with a list of several videos YouTube thought I would like to see. Seconds later, I was staring at an animated cow dancing to a fairly popular techno song. YouTube was right. I did want to see that. I quickly began to realize that Amazon.com wasn’t the only one tracking me. My television, my computer, my cell phone, even my car is constantly recording data about me and altering how it behaves to make my life easier. Now that’s pretty cool. Critics would say I’m nuts to endorse this tracking, this spying, this espionage. It’s a direct violation of our privacy and of our freedoms, they would say. But this technology actually makes us free to spend time on other interests besides trying to find a new pair of running shoes, a good song or a funny video. If you don’t think data is important, just look at the online movie rental company Netflix. Netflix uses a system that recommends movies to customers based on what they watch. In September, Netflix awarded a $1 million prize to the team that could improve this system. One million dollars. Clearly businesses recognize the value in connecting customer to content. But do we see this value? Sure it’s creepy to get e-mails from complete strangers who know your shoe size, but the end result is it makes life easier. Cyberspace is so vast that we need all the help we can get finding what we like. Or, if you are like me, just deciding what you like.
