Google doesn’t get me
Algorithms may still have a long way to go before they really seem to care about us.
As a pervasive user of Google’s products I am well aware that Google tracks everything I do on the web. I am also well aware that they do so with the almost sole intent of collecting data about my behaviour in order to serve me targeted ads. In many ways I’ve accepted this as an acceptable cost for the quality and convenience of the services Google offers, and in many way I benefit from the personalization this data in turn provides.
Personalization is one of the words we now use a lot in UX circles. In most cases we use it to describe these cases where behavioural data is used to cater an experience, and generally in real-time. These could be ads, but they are also often content, products, or other things I may actually be interested in.
For example, when I use Amazon I am recommended products similar to a products I’ve purchased in the past. These recommendation might be based on what other similar users have purchased, my location, and items that are trending at the time. In simpler cases, related content may simply be displayed based on how things are categorized like when we see related articles on a blog, based on articles we’ve read.
In any case, the goal of personalization is to provide an experience that feels catered to me, with the goal of influencing my behaviour towards conversions or engagement. This isn’t inherently bad, as I do actually want things, and sometimes a suggestion is helpful. This is where conventional targeting evolves from demographics and market segments to a directing users through a dynamic customer journey. In UX and marketing we must acknowledge the efficacy of this as fundamental to designing modern experiences and personalization can be used in really powerful ways to surface meaningful engagement.
Case and point: the Android Google app.
If you’re familiar with recent versions of Android you’re aware of the Google app screen, which is tucked away to the left of your home screen. Basically, swipe left, and there is Google.
This isn’t just Google search, it’s a personalization feature. There I find all of my upcoming calendar events, my travel time to work, flight status notifications, even shipping notifications, pulled from the various Google products I use. These features are quite clever and Google’s ability to parse my email correspondence and receipts to surface useful information is actually a great use of personalization.
Google even asks me about my preferences. Do I follow sports? What teams do I follow? In this personalized feed Google also endeavours to surface media and information about the topics I’ve shown interest in.
Unfortunately with the the latest version of Android they have made a change to this feed. They have separated, and de-prioritized the useful personal notifications (shipping details, flighting information etc.) in favour of a media feed. This feed at the centre of this Google experience is now entirely focused around news, articles, or blog posts it’s algorithm has determined are relevant to me. If I read an article on, say, the latest Marvel movie, related articles will show. If I tap an article about the Raptors basketball, I get articles about sports in Toronto. If I read an article about Kanye West, I’m now clearly also interested in the most obscure Kardashian sister and her exploits. I can tap something once, and now it is an interest. Herein lies the problem, and a clear sign of immaturity in the sophistication of Google’s actual personalization process.
I do read articles, I do spend money on the internet; but these tangential relationships between keywords and terms is just not sufficient to target me accurately.
Now of course I realize Google has ads on all these articles, and so it just wants me to tap on anything, if not everything. This is the give and take of how it uses my data to support it’s business model. The issue is I do have interests, I do read articles, I do spend money on the internet; but these tangential relationships between keywords and terms is just not sufficient to target me accurately.
Google actually provides a bit of transparency to these shortcomings. Each article in this feed contains a contextual menu which allows you to hide the article (supposedly training Google’s profile to better cater media for me). In this menu it also allows you to hide article based on the keyword or term in which that article is grouped (providing insight into the specific terms used). In examining this we can see how simple this really is. While certainly there are sophisticated database models, and “machine learning” behind all of these associations there doesn’t appear to be enough of me, of my actually perspective, bias or desires in the articles that are sourced.
Another example: I live in Toronto, Canada. I have told Google in many ways I live in Toronto, specifically. In my searches, with my geolocation; there is even a setting in the Google app which allows you to set your home address to provide personalized transit notifications and travel times. Yet, for some reason this Google algorithm seems to infer that I must be interested in articles published anywhere, in any newspaper all across Canada, despite the local granularity I have spoon feed it with my data.
Again, I am able to follow the logic of the algorithm. A correlation to Canada and an interest in a specific topic which that newspaper might be covering. The problem is that every newspaper in Canada, likely has a broad mandate. They cover politics local, provincial and federal. They also cover, art, entertainment and music. So while yes, I am interested in Kendrick Lamar I am frankly not interested in what a writer at the Winnipeg Sun has to say about the new Kendrick Nike collaboration. For one, I already know about that collaboration, I likely read about it on Hypebeast (which Google should know because I use Chrome). But more importantly, there is no reason to assume I would be interested in this specific take, given that it is not a reputable source with regards to Hip Hop sneaker collaborations.
Here is the crux of it. Google doesn’t actually know anything about me. It just has data on me. It’s profile of me is woefully incomplete, and it’s ability to interpret any kind of meaning in that data or in the content it’s recommending is totally lacking. It doesn’t know what I already know, or what I do not. It doesn’t know how I feel about a subject or what I feel is relevant. I doesn’t know my biases, or the biases in others I find reprehensible.
Google should know I am not interested in reading the National Review
A more potent example, is the disturbing prevalence of ultra-conservative material which manages to creep into this feed. Google should know my politics, or it should at least be aware at some level at my political leanings based on the media I consume, the city I live in, and the culture I show interest in. Google knows I watch Stephen Colbert. It knows I don’t read Breitbart. Google should know I am not interested in reading the National Review, and reading their scathing take down of the Black Panther movie, despite my interest in general in the film. Yes I’m interested in the movie. No, I do not have any desire to read a seemingly racist reflection on the movie’s shortcomings in portraying strong black characters.
Be more open minded, Sean
Now fair enough, perhaps my bias is showing and I need to expand my horizons, read about other perspectives, and at times I do. The issue is that Google is not feeding me these articles based on some algorithmic higher ground to broaden my perspective. It is simply feeding me as many articles as it can with the hope of me feeding it ad views.
This is of course, a much bigger issue than this one specific app experience. It’s a prevalent problem across all these platforms, that they just haven’t been able to scale, without losing the humanity in the deluge of data. Again though, this is about me and as more and as more I come to feel that Google doesn’t know me, or care about me, it erodes my trust in the company. Personalization is great when it works for me. If it doesn’t work at all, it feels non-personal or even somehow against me, invasive.
Google does allow you to disable this feed. Doing so provides you with a blank screen with just the Google search, when one swipes to the left. Perhaps this is the concession. Don’t like a Google that is trying to get to know you, slowly, awkwardly, go back to the old Google that just listens and lets you ask questions. While I still hop into the Google App out of boredom, I mostly avoid it, and in doing so, now avoid some of those beneficial personalization features I mentioned before. It’s unfortunate there is no middle ground here, but I guess that makes things clear. Google cares less about what you want, and more about what it wants you to see.
