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Ok, I'm all for building a better search engine. I think that there's amazing potential to personalization in search, though I don't see anyone really doing it as well as I'd like yet. I even think there's room for search engines to continue improving their ability to find and deliver the type of answers we're looking for. That said, I find it more than a little creepy that Google CEO Eric Schmidt wants Google to be able to tell me which job I should take.
From The Financial Times:
Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, said gathering more personal data was a key way for Google to expand and the company believes that is the logical extension of its stated mission to organise the world's information.
Asked how Google might look in five years' time, Mr Schmidt said: "We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalisation.
"The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as 'What shall I do tomorrow?' and 'What job shall I take?'"
Yeah, I had to read that twice too to figure out if he was kidding.
I don't think he is.
I wonder, can Google really gather enough information about us to help us make those decisions? I suppose it's possible. Think about what you search for on an average day. Think about the insight into your life that comes with those search queries. Think about the fact that Google sometimes knows more about what's on your mind than your spouse does.
On the other hand, ask yourself if you trust a machine to process the history of your searches and to use that data to help you figure out who to marry, where to live or what job to take.
Anyone want to place bets on the fun they'd have programming the algorithm to tell which people to work at Microsoft?
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