Has Personalization gone amuck?

September 14, 2013

Am I the only person who feels “over-personalized?”

The Wall Street Journal on-line now wants to “personalize” my news.  I absolutely love being able to get my news on-line, but one of the biggest reasons I subscribe is to learn about topics that should or might be of interest to me–just like I did when I used to read print newspapers. Over-personalization could deprive me of that opportunity, or, at least, make it more difficult.

On top of that, the current trend to on-line “personalization” can misinterpret my interests.  For example:  On news.google.com (my home page), I read about the Kim Kardashian/Kanye West hook-up.  Into my mind popped, “What a perfect couple!”  (I do not mean that in a nice way…) and–don’t ask me what possessed me–but I clicked to see the article.   For WEEKS thereafter, every time I looked at Google News, there was news about those two.  Was I interested?  No?  But Google News thought I was.

Somewhere between no personalization and extreme personalization is the perfect solution, and I hope someone develops it soon.

What do you think?