Carrying On

Read Up on Relevance – A Good Book and Some Good ?s to Ask

September 23, 2011 at 8:21 am carryingonblog Leave a comment

by Becky

I am singing the praises of an outstanding book I recently read about relevance technology and the personalization of Web content searches – technology that Rearden is all about. “The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You,” by Eli Pariser, is a well-balanced exploration of the ethical and sociological pros and cons of the way that consumers search today.  Whether we know it or not (though for the most part we know it), with every search on Bing or purchase on Amazon, we are trading personal data – tiny bits and bytes about our preferences, behavior, and history – in exchange for convenience and the personalization of the search experience.

For proof, watch the advertisements being shown to you on the popular Web sites you frequent most.  I visited KateSpade.com looking for wedding shoes recently, and ever since ads for Kate Spade goodies are following me to CNN, Facebook, and the other sites I frequent. (Works for me!  I’d rather see Kate Spade offers than stuff from online dating sites and credit score providers, any day.)

With Deem and our applications like travel, we’re using relevance technology to help get users in and out of the booking experience faster, showing them the best logical fare given who they are, what policy they’re subject to, and what we know they prefer.

You don’t have to search very far to see statistics in the media about how personalization is working for marketers.  Your own marketing department may be thinking about it – if not already exploring it – today.

But as consumers (like Eli Pariser points out in The Filter Bubble), companies are wise to ask good, smart, proactive questions about this stuff when talking to cloud-based software vendors.  Doing so helps you understand the implications and get your head around what’s good, what’s scary, what’s thrilling, and what’s really going to move the needle on your goals.

I put some questions together for companies to ask their cloud-based software vendors, for a recent Webinar I did through GBTA. Click here to download them. We’ll ask you to trade a wee bit of data in exchange for the document, mind you.  But we think the content, like personalization so often is, will be worth it.

Entry filed under: Becky's Ruminations, Business Travel, Travel Technology. Tags: Becky Waller, Deem, Deem Travel, Eli Pariser, GBTA, Personal Data, PII, Rearden Commerce, The Filter Bubble.