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The internet was not quite so bad before content recommendation engines. It was very much a "pull" experience, other than banner ads for porn and malware. Now,
by roywiggins 9y ago
The internet was not quite so bad before content recommendation engines. It was very much a "pull" experience, other than banner ads for porn and malware.
Now, Google and Facebook can specialize their content directly to you and your interests. Watch a slightly out of mainstream video? Maybe you would like this one that's further out there. And the more you click, the more YouTube thinks it knows you, and it can keep feeding you worse stuff. It's not that it's being malicious exactly, but it's got an ability to push you that Web 1.0 just didn't have.
It used to be that you would go down a link rabbit hole and maybe find some really awful stuff, but the next day the only thing that remembers it is your own browser. Nobody comes along and starts emailing you about it.
- eric_h 9y ago> The internet was not quite so bad before content recommendation engines. It was very much a "pull" experience, other than banner ads for porn and malware. Very true, and because of that the depth of the internet was not available to the uninitiated. The "push" of recommendation engines opened up a world of possibilities for the denizens of the internet who didn't know how to find new things that would interest them beyond typing the name of a site into a url bar. It also opened up a world of possibilities for monetization, and here we are.