I’ve been saying Google isn’t just a search engine, it’s a reputation engine. What people find on page one of Google is increasingly what they think about a brand, a product or even a person. Could Google also be a reflection engine, understanding our thoughts better than we do ourselves?
Google collects enough personal information about us to understand what we are looking for even if we aren’t articulating ourselves very well. It even serves up ads matched to the content that it has made matched us with. But it’s not Feltron yet. It doesn’t have enough info to map our entire lives – yet.
So sometimes it misses the mark. Maybe because the English language uses the same words to describe complete different things. Take the word “waffle.”
What comes to mind when I say waffle? Is it the morning time when you are reading this? Maybe you are thinking about Eggo waffles. Maybe you prefer to make your own waffles at home and you want the perfect recipe for chai waffles using your new waffle maker from William Sonoma. Are you from the south? Maybe your thinking about Flo, the snarky beehived waitress, at the Waffle House down the road.
Or maybe just maybe, you can’t decide what you mean by waffle, or even waffling, so you got to Dictionary.com to help figure it out. You are served with a handful of definitions for waffling and a bevy of ads. But that’s when things get a bit messy, and not just because there is batter splattered across the kitchen and leaking from the sides of your brand new spill-proof waffle maker.
Is Google waffling on what it thinks you are looking for? The definitions on the page clearly talk about “ego” waffles, not Eggo waffles – the tendency to be indecisive, not to snarf down a toaster snack. Maybe it just didn’t have enough information about my personal tendency to waffle to understand that what I was really looking for was me.
Google’s good, but it’s not there yet. Maybe because we are still clinging to some elements of our privacy and don’t share everything with Google. But people share way too much on Facebook. And the news that Facebook is going to use your browsing habits on other sites to better serve ads on Facebook.com should be eye-opening. Facebook already targets ads based on your conversations on the platform; now they are looking outside the walled garden as well.
We come full circle. What better way to understand the personal tendency to waffle than to Google it, right? Maybe not. Facebook? Maybe yes. But I found a great new waffle maker from William Sonoma in the process, so at least I will eat well.
I wonder what the ads next to this blog post will be?
