January 31, 2011 – Social networking and the infamous “like” button have trained at least one writer much like Pavlov’s dog and the bell. This conditioned reflex actually does more than give a sense of personalization. It provides data.
This humorous and interesting perspective was found on VentureBeat in their article, “The Like-ification of 2011.”
“Like” data gives advertisers the ability to target messages only to those that have expressed intent and interest.
So how do digital “likes” fit into an analog world? Digital metadata is being layered onto the physical world with mobile devices and GPS. User data and intent is now being captured about physical locations like “check-ins” on Foursquare and Facebook Places, not to mention how our purchases online are being captured and used “against/for” us.
It makes one wonder how else we are being trained by technology.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
