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Saturday 13 June 2009, 5:45 AM
Idiot-Savant Programming
I'm sorry for her and its inconsequential what her crime was except that she didn't deserve a make-shift death sentence.
Now what really disgusted me on top of that was that Yahoo's idiot savant "content-analysis" software dropped at least 3 ads on the page for chain link fencing vendors.
Some time ago in the "stone-Age" of television and radio, program managers and news departments would prevent airing advertising for airline companies when there was an aircraft disaster in the news. It was considered good taste.
The difference is now there are no human's involved. just computers with what I call "idiot-savant" programs that are real smart at making connections based on vocabulary but idiots when it comes to analysis of content.
Google, and the other search engines do the same thing and I've seen some really idiot results of the programming for content words but not meaning.
You want to make Web 2.0 (or 3.0) work well for people? Program some heuristic content analysis in your advertising. Maybe you won't totally disgust your audience.
PreviousComments on this post
I share your disgust, on both points.
I pray for the poor woman's soul. You are right, she absolutely didn't deserve what happened.
As for the advertising, and programming behind it, your comparison with the technological "stone age" leads me to an observation about attitudes and intents. When there were real human beings making the decisions about content, the tendency was to err on the side of decency. Now the humans have been removed from the process, and the computers have been programmed to err on the side of MONEY. Don't forget the simple fact that Yahoo, Google and the rest get paid every time they put up one of those ads.
There might be the seeds of a solution, if the advertisers concerned were unhappy with what has happened. Having some sort of clause to refuse payment for inappropriately placed ads, or even better to impose penalties for ads place like these, would actually motivate someone to improve the current totally mindless situation.
jw
