In many of my recent meetings, I have pointed out that “Google has flattened the awareness environment of decision makers.” As a start, I intend to convey the idea that decision makers are now getting almost any information they seek by inputting simple keywords into a Google search. While Google delivered information borders on the miraculous, there are consequences.
One of the consequences that must be understood is that powerful search often leads to the stripping of context from a user’s understanding of the search results. Context, as used here, is the “the circumstances in which an event occurs; a setting.” Without context, sought after information is flat. This flat information does not have the personal associations, setting, history or circumstances as information in context.
Think of information in context this way. It was not so long ago that a person would go to a library to seek out information. Along the way to finding target information, the seeker would be exposed to related publications that were not conceived at the onset of the search. The seeker might also be aided by a librarian who could further expand the depth of context about a topic. Even the fact, that the library was local to the seeker, increased the likelihood of useful context. The historical nature of the searching process was inherently rich in context. Today, any person can type a short string of words into a Google search box, even if incorrectly spelled, and Google will return highly relevant and prioritized results for the seeker. Nevertheless, the immediate gratification of instant search results without context will invariably flatten the seeker’s potential for understanding. [In response to the context issue, Google is making great strides to consider the search history or location of a user as clues for improved search results.]
I have many industry experiences that are also indicators of a flatter information world:
• Many of my junior clients do not even know the competitive topics for which they should be monitoring.
• Once individual search alerts are constructed, the vast majority of decision makers do not update the keyword criteria of these searches even though relevant topics are changing and the actual language itself of the topics are changing.
• The “siren song” of confirmation bias inclines users to only search for information that verifies what they already believe.
To further complement Google search results or any information source, News Patterns is creating dynamic “radar sectors” that create useful context around related topics. An example of related topics can be a political campaign, composed of competing candidates and the issues that are defining the election. Another example of related topics is a market environment among competing companies, products, customers, suppliers and technologies. News patterning algorithms first define the likely topics for useful context. Other patterning algorithms define how context is defined and shaped by new information. While other algorithms create visual representations of related topic context in which an information seeker can interact to search for target information as well as to discover information that was not initially the target information. An end benefit of news patterning context, is the extension of powerful Google searches complemented with individual user discovery of the unanticipated, yet important and relevant. The world can indeed be flattened and rounded at the same time.
