One of the new buzz words is "metadata." Best I can tell (and I checked Wikipedia) metadata is "data about the containers of data." In simple terms, I think, it is detailed data (redundant, I know) collected about each of us and spit back at us in the form of information most specific to us (or me).
Like those ads that show up on your Facebook page. You know, you buy a pair of shoes from Zappos which sucks in all your info, analyzes it, puts it though a complicated algorithm (redundant, again) to ascertain the correct ascertainments about you, figures out who you are and what you like and then...zappo!...you get an ad on your Facebook page for...the same shoes you just bought! Wow. They really, really know what I'd like!!
I think that's how metadata is/are used, at least commercially. I checked my Facebook page the last couple days to see if the Zappo thing was an aberration. Here are some of the ads that were personalized to ME:
Then the metadating prognosticators might not only know me, they might really, really like me.
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Like those ads that show up on your Facebook page. You know, you buy a pair of shoes from Zappos which sucks in all your info, analyzes it, puts it though a complicated algorithm (redundant, again) to ascertain the correct ascertainments about you, figures out who you are and what you like and then...zappo!...you get an ad on your Facebook page for...the same shoes you just bought! Wow. They really, really know what I'd like!!
I think that's how metadata is/are used, at least commercially. I checked my Facebook page the last couple days to see if the Zappo thing was an aberration. Here are some of the ads that were personalized to ME:
- An ad on how to flip houses. (well, my current house is on the market so...maybe. But we've been in it for a long time. Must be a slow flip.)
- An ad for Amazon touting Ricky Nelson's greatest hits CD for $7 (OK, the price is right, and I have always been partial to his "Garden Party").
- An ad for training sessions on furniture building (if any of my male friends growing up saw this was targeted at me, they'd howl. Once, I had a new apartment and they were helping me paint it. I said, where shall I start and they said, in unison, "the closets." Might be where I got the nickname "Fingers" from. It's kind of like the tallest kid in the class being called "Shorty."
- The ad headlined "Boyfriend Needed." Uh, no, not that there's anything wrong with that. It was an ad for ourtime.com, which is for dating folks over the age of 60 though.
Then the metadating prognosticators might not only know me, they might really, really like me.
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