reviews
Feb 13, 2012
Kate
rated it: 
Although much-discussed in the past year and oft-quoted amongst the websites, blogs and message boards I frequent, The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser, for me, was a rather plodding look at internet "personalization" trends. I found myself putting the book aside and forgetting to take it up again, perhaps due to the immediacy of the internet itself, which made much of what Pariser presented already old news to his intended audience.
But it was a good, solid book about an impor More...
But it was a good, solid book about an impor More...
Dec 04, 2011
Kristen
rated it: 
The big message in this book is that "curators'" of information on the Internet, like Google and Facebook, use of personalization has significant negative consequences. If I search for something on Google, I am going to get results tailored to where I am and who Google "thinks" I am. Pariser argues that we are less and less confronted with ideas we don't agree with or new and surprising ideas.
The biggest issue is not even that the personalization is happening , bu More...
The biggest issue is not even that the personalization is happening , bu More...
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Sep 04, 2011
Tucker
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Eli Pariser's The Filter Bubble is a pretty awesome book. It's quite similar to Siva Vaidhyanathan's The Googlization of Everything, published only two months earlier (which it nevertheless manages to cite), except that The Filter Bubble covers the Internet's big players in general -- Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter -- whereas The Googlization of Everything was limited to Google as a company. Pariser's metaphor of living in a "filter bubble" is similar to Vaidhyanathan's idea of hu
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Jan 25, 2012
Scott
rated it: 
I thought this book fell into the all to often category in non-fiction of an author with enough content for a Sunday New York Times magazine article but not enough content for a whole book. Pariser's thesis is simple, the web is filtering information for us based on what it thinks we are interested in seeing and this is potentially bad. The filtering algorithm is so complex that even the designers would be hard pressed to explain individual results. Filtering is bad because it increases our te
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Jan 02, 2012
Charles
rated it:
The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser
Eli Pariser's concept of the filter bubble is a metaphor: he fears we're increasingly exposed only to information that software has chosen for us in response to how we have behaved online in the past. So, we live in a bubble of our own making that filters incoming stimuli, leaving only those that we are likely to respond to.
On the face of it, that's a good thing. Companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon are giving us what we want. The co More...
Eli Pariser's concept of the filter bubble is a metaphor: he fears we're increasingly exposed only to information that software has chosen for us in response to how we have behaved online in the past. So, we live in a bubble of our own making that filters incoming stimuli, leaving only those that we are likely to respond to.
On the face of it, that's a good thing. Companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon are giving us what we want. The co More...
Jun 11, 2011
Mark
rated it:
Eli Pariser argues in The Filter Bubble that "rise of pervasive , embedded filtering is changing the way we experience the internet and ultimately the world." Now that companies can aggregate our web behaviors, likes, and purchases, online profiles of web users can be built that can be profitably sold to interested parties. This book therefore covers two issues: total personalization of delivered web data, and nature of these created web personas.
Regarding the first issue, I More...
Regarding the first issue, I More...
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Jan 23, 2012
Dmdutcher
rated it:
Long read about an interesting subject. Eli is worried that curating technologies that filter the results from almost everything-our web searches, the kind of books and media recommended to us, and our own tendency to like things similar to us walls us in a bubble, preventing us from being exposed to many new ideas and opinions. This has far-ranging effects on how we learn and deal with people.
Unfortunately it took me a lot longer to read this than the average book. I think there's t More...
Unfortunately it took me a lot longer to read this than the average book. I think there's t More...
Dec 27, 2011
Nancy
rated it: 
Yikes! I knew the internet captured information about us to try to sell stuff. You can't miss it. I looked at vacuum cleaner reviews a few weeks ago before buying a vacuum at a bricks and mortar store. The internet is still busy showing me vacuum ads on multiple websites.
However I did not know that my news is filtered too. Many sites select the news you see to fit the profile they have of you. If I don't seek it out, I won't see opinions different from my own and I won't be presente More...
However I did not know that my news is filtered too. Many sites select the news you see to fit the profile they have of you. If I don't seek it out, I won't see opinions different from my own and I won't be presente More...
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Jun 27, 2011
Joe.bell
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Eli Pariser has two or maybe three books here. One is a call to pay attention to what is happening in the internet community that people are spending more and more time in. He points out the personalization and filtering algorithmic management of what you see on the internet is a sort of soft brain wash. Maybe it is only a brain spritz, not a full wash yet, but he does explain lots of the behavior that is leading the social media to be sort of a dilusional mind walk. The second book he has is an
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Jun 25, 2011
Naum
rated it:
Admittedly, upon initial reading, began by sharpening the cutlery and prepared to launch into critical invective about this book. But it was not a terrible read at all, and the Mr. Pariser struck salience at a number of points.
I just reject the overt thesis that personalized filtering is the great 21st century media Satan. Yes, lack of serendipity is of some concern, but not the petrifying bogeyman that seems to warrant most of the book's main topic is way overblown, in an age where More...
I just reject the overt thesis that personalized filtering is the great 21st century media Satan. Yes, lack of serendipity is of some concern, but not the petrifying bogeyman that seems to warrant most of the book's main topic is way overblown, in an age where More...
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Jul 07, 2011
Bill
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So. This petered out a bit toward the end, mostly because I'm not quite sure Pariser knew where he wanted to finish. Still, he did recap some of his more salient points and offer some suggestions about how we, the citizens of the Internet, can break out of our individual filter bubbles and achieve a richer, deeper, broader experience. He also offers some suggestions about how the major players in filter creation (Google, Facebook, Amazon) can become better custodians of the trust we place in the
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Jul 06, 2011
Shruti
rated it:
Within this critique on Internet administrative and operational policies and the colonies of power, control, and everyday experiences forthcoming with the rise of ubiquitous computing, we tread a neat idea-logue: of anecdotes, opinions, and ‘what ifs’ associated with the collection, aggregation, use, reporting, and privatization of consumer data. Frankly, it’s amazing how covertly and swiftly prominent Internet ‘gamers’ such as Facebook and Google (Pariser’s key instructive examples) can, do, an
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Dec 11, 2011
Pariser dissects the dark side of the algorithms that allow search engines to guess what we want--the results aren't just tailored to what we want, but to what advertisers and perhaps more nefarious editors want us to see, not to mention the extremely easy habit of only reading what we agree with or what back-fills our own confirmation biases. While I am not sure that there is a technological or regulatory solution for even the privacy aspects of this, it speaks to a drum I am constantly poundi
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Jul 02, 2011
Larry
rated it:
did you know that Google, Facebook, and other internet sites filter the information you see, based on what they think they know about you? That if you are a conservative you search results will not include liberal opinions and vice versa? While this is done for your convenience to reduce the amount of information you need to review it has deep implications for how we interact with others. And these are the filters that are supposed to help us.
The filters that are designed to trick us More...
The filters that are designed to trick us More...
Aug 08, 2011
Ryan
rated it:
Because you're reading this on a computer, you should read this. It's about the personalization of our web experience - when I Google something, I get different results than the results you get Googling the same term. This is so much information on the web that some kind of filter, or personalized viewing experience is critical, but how that filter is created, maintained, and applied is of vital interest to how we interpret the world. Pariser doesn't just stick to a primer on the Google web, he
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Aug 08, 2011
Steve
rated it:
Pariser paints a fairly bleak picture of our present and future in a world controlled not by a ruling elite of individuals but by algorithms designed to increase profits and prevent us from coming into contact with anything we don't "like."
I write this review and give it only 4 of 5 stars because I think it's among the most important books I've read in several years (5 stars), but isn't easily digestible and could have used a bit more editing (minus 1). This, ironically, i More...
I write this review and give it only 4 of 5 stars because I think it's among the most important books I've read in several years (5 stars), but isn't easily digestible and could have used a bit more editing (minus 1). This, ironically, i More...
Jun 23, 2011
Pedro
rated it:
O livro é interessante como aviso: a ultrapersonalização está limitando o nosso campo de visão, evitando que tenhamos contato com opiniões adversas e perdendo as oportunidades de encontrar boas coisas inesperadas. Como temos cada vez mais interações com o mundo via internet, o filtro é "manual" quando escolhemos seguir pessoas com o mesmo pensamento político no Twitter e sempre buscamos os recomendados do Pandora, por exemplo. Mas é um filtro invisível quando o Google nos mostra result
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Oct 09, 2011
Margaret
rated it:
This book was a pretty hot topic earlier this year, though I'm not convinced that he's saying anything new in this--definitely quotes a lot from many other books I've read over the past year. Basic thesis is: the web is filtered, in ways that you can and cannot see, and both are insidious in their own ways. You have absolutely read many of the anecdotes in these other books. But his own personal history gives him a good perspective on the whole topic, so if you are well versed in it I think you
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Jun 05, 2011
Betsy
rated it:
A very important book for anyone who uses the internet. The big providers -- Facebook and Google especially -- filter the content they present to you, without telling you and without your permission. Even if you think you've elected to receive everything. They do it in the name of personalization, but it's largely to services advertisers, and it affects your online experience in insidious ways.
This book is short, well-written, and easy to understand. Although written by a well-kn More...
This book is short, well-written, and easy to understand. Although written by a well-kn More...
Aug 05, 2011
Bonnie
rated it:
This book brought up so many issues I hadn't even considered. With the heavy focus on personalization of the internet by giants such as Google, it's alarming the level of personal data being collected on everyone using these websites and the way this data is being manipulated to not only market more effectively to you, but also tailor search results. As a librarian, I found the biased search results that I now know Google is constantly spitting out at me particularly frustrating. How can some
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Aug 27, 2011
Kate P.
rated it:
Is a Google search really showing you everything available or just the information it thinks you want to see? Pariser's book explains the change Google made in December 2009 to personalize your searches that relates to advertising revenue. So, you may want to do research on a certain topic and your search will return results based upon your past searching history. You the reader do not to get to decide for yourself what pieces of information might be of value to you. Over time, you lose cont
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Jun 17, 2011
Jodi
rated it:
What if everything you read on the internet was tailored to provide exactly what your interests are? That is the central thesis of this thought provoking and excellent book .
Facebook gets all the bad press, but all the major internet players, such as Google, Amazon, etc. sell our personal data to private companies who in turn sell to advertisers. We are moving inexorably to complete personalization of our internet experience, which may sound appealing until you realize the ensuing disinfor More...
Facebook gets all the bad press, but all the major internet players, such as Google, Amazon, etc. sell our personal data to private companies who in turn sell to advertisers. We are moving inexorably to complete personalization of our internet experience, which may sound appealing until you realize the ensuing disinfor More...
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Aug 06, 2011
Judith
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The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You by Eli Pariser explains how we went from “surfing the net” to flowing through the information tunnels built for us by Google and others. Personalization of search not only delivers us up as customers, but as consumers of news and other information. With every click, our selections are recorded, and with every search they are returned to us in kind. Via social media, we listen to the people we already know and “like” the things we already ag
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Dec 22, 2011
Osho
rated it:
If anyone has told you recently that the information you want is in "the second link that comes up for X on Google," but it's not, you already know the first part of what Pariser is going to tell you. Much of this book addresses aspects of the issues of filtering, which means monitoring, and how our online behavior and data may be used not only to tailor what we see, but to commodetize us. Pariser does a good job of demonstrating that a filtered web does not flatten access to informati
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Aug 05, 2011
Sally
rated it:
"In this book, I've argued that the rise of pervasive, embedded filtering is changing the way we experience the Internet and ultimately the world.... Even if the personalizing code isn't always spot-on, it's accurate enough to be profitable, not just by delivering better ads but also by adjusting the substance of what we read, see, and hear." A sobering look at how personalization and data gathering by the big internet players influences the search results we see, the news presented t
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Oct 05, 2011
William
rated it:
Interesting, easy read. Definitely for computer geeks, despite the fact that the author obviously tried to make his target audience any smart person who uses the web (specifically, search engines and other popular sites that customize their results based on what they know about you and who you are). I don't know that I buy the principal thesis (that customization is bad because it causes things we're not interested in not to be shown to us, but things that should be important to all citizens nee
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Jun 01, 2011
Ownbymom
rated it:
I've long been interested in ideas about community, and how the internet might be changing how we view community. Pariser's book argues, in how own words, that "the rise of pervasive, embedded filtering is changing the way we experience the Internet and ultimately the world." Sites like Facebook and Google give us what they think we want to see, and Pariser argues that their views of who we are may not be accurate. He also argues that a steady diet of bland sameness tends to make
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Feb 21, 2012
Steve
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An important book in the current climate. I think the writer is correct in alerting people to the possible use /misuse of the vast amount of data accumulated via online searches, social media, buying patterns online, of which this review will become part. I believe there are important moral and ethical issues which need to be thought through and I agree with hime that online tranparency is the way forward. I am less sure about his assertion that the me-centredness of the Internet will somehow
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Jan 27, 2012
Sarah
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The customization filters that Google and many other search and social networking sites have implemented mean that your searches and feeds are limited according to a method you don't get to know. People online tend to cluster in communities that are like themselves. The original promise of the web was that information would spread to everyone online equally, regardless of their backgrounds and affinities. Now we run the risk of being cut off from things we haven't overtly expressed an interes
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Jun 09, 2011
Todd
rated it:
This book will change the way you view social networking, search engines, and the World Wide Web forever. Personalization seems harmless, if not beneficial to users, but its benefits are far outweighed by its ability to rob us of our intellectual freedoms. Pariser discusses Facebook, Google, etc., e.g. how Google search results are being limited based on the data it has gathered on a specific user (which is made possible by having you log into Gmail, etc.)
One of the best quotes in th More...
One of the best quotes in th More...
