Avoiding the Filter Bubble

Technology enables online personalization which can be helpful (or creepy). Often associated with targeted ads, this technology can also skew your view of the world if you use some search engines such as Google.

Ran across this article that discusses the implications in academic research and how to help mitigate these effects.  Even if we only use general search engines to start our thinking and to develop keywords or concepts, our views could be skewed before we go to the academic or specialized databases.

Avoiding the Filter Bubble in academic search, Digital Learning Blog, November 7, 2012

“every time you search Google, it learns a little bit more about you and attempts to personalise your results. So over time the same search will bring back different results as it learns what it thinks you find useful and what you don’t.”

Includes TED talk video:  Eli Pariser, the person who coined the  term ‘filter bubble’

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