One part that I found interesting was the quote that describes their hopes for Google as “something that understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want”. That reminded me of a speech that I saw on TED.com, there was a man speaking on the problem with search engines , what he called ‘filter bubbles’. A filter bubble is an imaginary profile that Google has of the users computer that gives the user results based on what they have in the past. According to the speaker, although this may seem beneficial it actually limits the user and inhibits the user from expanding his/her range of knowledge.
The example he gave to further illustrate his point involved him and his two friends. He told each of them to Google “Egypt” and to send him screenshots of their results. One of his friends got results on the crisis in Egypt and information on their foreign policy, while the other only got resorts , hotels and tourists sites in Egypt. This clearly reflects how Google and other search devices “tailor” the result based on who is searching.
The main problem with this is that while one may get information that is relevant to them important things that we should know about is completely invisible to us.
Here is the link to the speech , really interesting.