Internet is Alive; It is learning being YOU
For quite some time I have been living with a thought… a thought that makes me feel that “something” or “someone” is watching me and everyone else who logs on to the Internet.
For a thought again, couldn’t that someone or something be the Internet itself? Yeah, why not?
After all, every website or web application we use has a capability to learn about us. Don’t Agree? If not, then lets try and understand what Internet is. To an end user, Internet is email, search engines, social networks, e-commerce and access to information. What an end user does not know is that all these utilities on the web are enabled with a mechanism that captures information about them.
The new Internet – It has a Brain and it Learns
In today’s Internet scenario, data about the users is collected, stored, interpreted and acted upon.
This data or information is not confined to one’s email address, name or telephone number. Internet learns a lot more than that about you.
Who does the thinking here?
In earlier days, webmasters or website owners did the thinking (and they continue to do so). They study and analyze the data captured about their visitors. This data helps them in understanding user-behavior, visitors’ likes or dislikes, visitor demographics etc. In the days of today, various automated software applications do the data capturing and its interpretation.
Internet is trying to become the courteous host at a party. A host who not only takes care of your likes, dislikes or interests but also tries to dress like you, talk like you and tries to be as close to you as possible.
A series of web-enabled software applications are keeping an eye on you; these applications collect information like your:
- your browsing history
- your geography or location
- your what you like on Internet and what you don’t
- what you search
- your age group
- your gender
- your Internet speed or the bandwidth
Intelligent thinking algorithms (or software with artificial intelligence) do the interpretation of this data and come up with conclusions like:
- what type of ads should be shown to you
- what kind of news headlines should be shown to you, whether politics or technology
- which search results should rank higher for you
- the list is endless
There’s a lot more to these conclusions when someone knows so much about you. It becomes very easy for a host at a party to make you feel comfortable once he or she knows you well. Internet or the web Utlities we use are doing the same – they are learning who and what we are and they are trying to become our friends, because we are comfortable being friends with people who are like us and we like them back.
Internet is an economy within itself; advertising and e-commerce fuel that economy and every user on the web is a consumer. By learning about us and how to be like us (the consumers), the creators of the web or the owners of web utilities (the sellers) are trying to maximize their share in the Internet economy pie.
The thought which initiated this post isn’t over yet. This post so far accrues from only a small part of that thought. I will try to write more on this very soon, after all I have resumed writing after a month or so.
P.S. – Don’t feel bad after reading this post because whoever or whatever is learning about us is only trying to be our friend because if it was otherwise, the end result will be the collapse of the Internet economy and people who’re vacationing in space with that money will definitely not want that 
Just sip the curry, there’s nothing to worry!
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Hi
Good strategy of online working.