In last week`s column, I wrote about how amazed I was to learn that Amazon.com was able to rate my tastes so accurately from the books I have enjoyed that it could suggest movies and music that I would like as well.
In response to this, one of my readers sent me a mail about a service called Stumble that introduces users to Web sites that they might like. This is done based on which boxes they ticked on a list of topics of interest.
I rolled up my sleeves and set to work on editing my profile. I have a wide range of interests.
Intellectually, I`m a jack-of-all-trades, so I ticked a lot of boxes.
When I was done, Stumble added its toolbar to my browser and every time I have a free moment, all I have to do is click the Stumble box, and a site that might be of interest to me is produced.
Each time this happens, I have to rate whether I like the site, or if it isn`t for me, further improving my profile with Stumble so that it can continue to recommend more appropriate sites.
It started me off gently with a site that I`m pretty sure most people would find interesting.
Georgina Guedes, editor, Brainstorm
It started me off gently with a site that I`m pretty sure most people would find interesting. The site shows a composite satellite photograph of all of Earth`s continents, by night, so that the density of light emitted by certain highly-populated areas can be gauged.
There`s the obvious, "I can see my house!" appeal, as well as the greater curiosity of where the world`s most highly populated areas are. Further observations that can be drawn are that, for a nation that doesn`t like America, Canada has put a ridiculous amount of its cities so close to the border with that country that they might as well be in it. And that there are some pretty impressive patches of Africa, South America and the East that are still completely in the dark at night.
Thereafter, Stumble spewed up a whole variety of sites, some of which were absolutely fascinating, and others that were way over my head. I could see how my interest in "nanotechnology" had spawned a particular site offered to me, but at the same time, I realised that this interest was not enough to guide me through pages of complex statements and equations.
However, by informing Stumble that I didn`t think much of its offering, hopefully I have exorcised any future sites of that nature.
I have now installed this on my home PC, but my boyfriend and I are having a power struggle over whose profile we get to use while searching for sites.
This incredible way of surfing cuts out all the dross and gives you a whole new Internet experience, where everything you see is what you want to see. It`s Internet heroin, and it`s going to take over the world.
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