Angela Natividad's Live & Uncensored!

07 January 2008

The Lowest Common Denominator

I think the most groundbreaking thing about internet advertising is that it has made everything trackable: how users surf, where they go, how much time they spend on a site, what they ultimately buy, even what they're looking for at outset.

And because everything is trackable, ads are better tailored to consumers. This is what made Google AdSense so attractive to so many. This is what made behavioral tracking so frightening to those who prefer the illusion of anonymity.

The promise behind the Semantic Web ("Web 3.0") is of a universe that caters entirely to us. Anything with a chip or an agnostic barcode will be internet-ready or readable, and anything internet-ready should be able to serve us what we seek at any given moment.

But will it give me what I really, really want? Will it give me more me?

4 comments:

Jimmy Little said...

"The promise behind the Semantic Web ("Web 3.0") is of a universe that caters entirely to us".

Well, maybe, but definitely if by "us" you mean content providers and advertisers. For the rest of "us" Web 3.0 (like its predecessors, to some extent) is more about ensnaring us in a rather creepy tracking mechanism than anything else. Never lose sight of the fact that we (the browsers) are the product being sold….

Angela Natividad said...

I suppose prostitution is called the oldest profession because, one way or another, we find ourselves in it.

Jimmy Little said...

Riiiiiight. But who are the pimps here and who the clients?! :-).

Web 3.0: In Order To Better Server You...

Angela Natividad said...

Lawl.