Friday, April 09, 2010

Surprising Suggestions from Google Reader

Has anyone else noticed that Google Reader seems to suggest feeds based on your search behavior? For example, I read no blogs about skateboarding or Civil War re-enactment, but I have been doing searches related to them, and now Reader is suggesting feeds related to the Civil War and skateboarding.

I don't have a problem with this per se, but it is a little surprising because in general, Google seems to have gone out if its way to not foreground sharing of things like this across your Google interactions, presumably because the potential creepy-factor is a greater threat to them long term than the small benefits of "synergy."

2 comments:

Stephen Downes said...

Yes, I noticed this too, and wasn't too pleased, because my feed-reading behaviours and search-behaviours are two very different activities, which I don't want overlapping (at least, certainly not overlapping without my having any say in the matter)

Anonymous said...

Generally, I don't search while signed in. It's not as convenient, but signing out before searching is a habit I developed before I ever started using a reader.