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Most Readers Don't Like Customized News
An anonymous reader writes "Despite the push by organizations such as Google and Yahoo!, a recent study found not everyone is a fan of web-based customization for news. The researchers defined customization as when the user gets to choose specific topics to read on a daily basis. Instead, some prefer personalization. This is when the system chooses content based on a reader's past choices. 'The obvious assumption is people would like more control over what they read,' Sundar said. 'We found when it came to evaluating new stories and quality of content, customization was the preferred method for power users. If you were not a power user, you wanted the system to tailor the news for you.'"
"Not every one is a fan of option x", "some prefer option y".
Different people prefer different things? This is truly revolutionary news. Quick, someone make more than one flavor of ice cream!
I'd be pleased just to get rid of all the anonymous commenting on most news sites. The level of nastiness leveled by pretty much anyone commenting on sites like Yahoo News is just mindblowing. Anonymous web commenting has gotten so out of hand, someone even made a firefox plugin to filter it!
You're wrong because you're ugly!
Usually, for me, a "power user" is someone that doesn't go "ohhhhhhh" when I press enter, instead of clicking "ok", or when I press "tab" and the cursor "magically" changes fields...
"A sysadmin is a cross between a detective, a police officer, a gardener, a doctor and a fireman"
The anonymous comments are usually the most honest, and truly reflect what the poster is thinking, even if the views expressed may hurt your fragile emotions.
It makes perfect sense why people might get "nasty" regarding certain topics. In such cases, there's usually a serious problem at hand.
Take software developed in India, for example. When that topic comes up here, you'll probably see comments you consider "nasty", posted by "Anonymous Cowards". If you actually bothered to listen to what was being said, you'd understand the very real problem of Indian-developed software being extremely shitty.