Comments on: The personalized web is just an interest graph away

By: Brandon Nolte

Brandon Nolte — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 17:00:57 +0000

There should be a way for the subject to at least view a summary of their interest graph to better understand what he or she is “creating”<<<

I totally agree with this. Knowing what is behind the scenes would allow me to feel a little more comfortable with something knowing my tendencies. At least that way I would feel like I have a little more control over it even if it isn't completely collaborative.

By: Dave Williams

Dave Williams — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:26:17 +0000

There should be a way for the subject to at least view a summary of their interest graph to better understand what he or she is “creating” while traversing the Internet. This would help people determine what content is likely being presented “on their behalf” and what content is not. It would also allow them the opportunity make browsing-behavior modifications in order to avoid problems arising from their displayed content.

By: Jan Bergmans

Jan Bergmans — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:20:43 +0000

Reblogged this on Jan Bergmans Weblog and commented: Semantic

By: Derrick Harris

Derrick Harris — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:37:33 +0000

You are 100 percent correct, although the issue probably shouldn’t be so black and white. I think you would agree that the web loses some of its utility when the options are “use and be tracked” or “don’t use.”

The trick is finding a middle ground between the data that free services need to survive and the privacy some people want, and between personalization that improves efficiency and personalization that’s intrusive.

By: Kevin USA 2012 and forever on

Kevin USA 2012 and forever on — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:50:52 +0000

here’s a way not to be graphed, just don’t use social media. Some of us americans like, don’t really use social media. U can’t really complain that u are tracked if u use social media and click the like button and so on. By the way i am 21

By: Derrick Harris

Derrick Harris — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:34:40 +0000

Distinction granted. Although at the end of the day, I’m not sure it matters. Even if Amazon never builds a graph, *if* it ever did allow third-party access to user profile data, that could become part of the greater graph.

By: James D

James D — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:16:15 +0000

Not really. It will build a behavioural profile containing metadata for visitors such as “jeans”, “tablet computer”, but not ‘link’ to topics like Gravity’s interest graph will know that “tablet computer” means a visitor will probably be interested in “computing”. And that’s a big difference between a profile and a graph.

By: Derrick Harris

Derrick Harris — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:01:51 +0000

It knows what I’ve bought and what I looked at, and can compare to others with similar behavior to recommend what I probably like. Sounds like the start of a graph to me, even if it doesn’t go by that name!

By: Derrick Harris

Derrick Harris — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:58:26 +0000

Well, it’s only across sites that use Gravity, and there are opt-out options. But that’s one of those policy issues we need to figure out — how much do we value this perceived notion of privacy vs. how much we value letting the web evolve organically.

By: James D

James D — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:35:45 +0000

It’s also worth pointing out that Gravity’s across-site tracking is most likely illegal or soon to be illegal in the EU.