Is social media a fad or is it the biggest thing since the industrial revolution.
Let’s talk about personalization and its importance in social media. Information is in overdrive on the web today and user generated content is wide spread but what happens when one needs something specific and has to wade through a million websites to get what they need. Personalization comes to rescue.
One of the biggest trends to hit 2009 was personalization i.e. offering users worthy recommendations and helpful filters. In the real world, we talk about personalized or customized services. Akin to that, in the virtual world, personalization is about providing the right service when it is asked for.
You Have Been Personalized
The need of the hour is to be able to filter through countless web pages and websites and provide a structure for those employing real-time information. Change is palpable as the internet moves from coughing up data that is based on relevance as well as customized to an individual’s need. What is personalization? Using dashboard services such as Seesmic, Tweet Deck or Peoplebrowsr to function on Twitter enable one to focus on what is important by grouping keywords, issues and people. Ergo, Personalization.
Are You An Open Web?
There is an interesting shift in mindset of privacy versus sharing data on the Web. It has been observed that more and more corporations are openly sharing their information online through APIs, open data measures and services on the web. This data is organized in a manner that it is recyclable by other people as well as inter-related. How are open data and personalization related, you ask? Well, applications love it when you put your information out there to be used by them and in return, you make better use of the content or service being provided. While privacy may be of concern here, the edge one gets via personalization are remarkable.
Approach to Personalization
There are several ways in which a product is recommended to a user on the Web. The first way could be a personal recommendation where things are suggested purely based on the user’s conduct in the past. Secondly, there are social recommendations where suggestions are made depending on the past patterns of comparable users. Thirdly, recommendations also take place based on the item known as item recommendation. And lastly, one could combine all three methods and apply them.
The New Way
Personalization is all set to ignite the Web in 2010 even though it may have been a little slow in 2009. Welcome to the Revolution.
