The vision for Microsoft’s search engine

As we have previously written about the Internet Filter Bubble it is worth keeping an eye on its latest developments and notice that Microsoft is apparently determined to step up the game. 

A recently surfaced Microsoft patent application reveals its next generation search engine, equipped with advanced content and context comprehension capabilities to read Facebook status reports and Twitter tweets. Using tracking cookies, direct search engine entry pattern recognition, and so on, this system is capable of picking up advanced user information, such as mood, interests, and even the person’s education level and his or her comprehension of specific topics. The search engine is designed to change it’s appearance to the color best matching the user’s mood, detected level of education, intelligence, social environment and so on.  

Here is an excerpt from the patent application:

In addition to skewing the search results to the user’s inferred interests, the user-following engine may further tailor the search results to a user’s comprehension level. For example, an intelligent processing module may be directed to discerning the sophistication and education level of the posts of a user. Based on that inference, the customization engine may vary the sophistication level of the customized search result. The user-following engine is able to make determinations about comprehension level several ways, including from a user’s posts and from a user’s stored profile.

In one example, the user-following engine may discern whether a user is a younger student or an adult professional. In such an example, the user-following engine may tailor the results so that the professional receives results reflecting a higher comprehension level than the results for the student. Any of a wide variety of differentiations may be made. In a further example, the user-following engine may discern a particular specialty of the user, e.g., the user is a marine biologist or an avid cyclist. In such embodiments, a query from a user related to his or her particular area of specialty may return a more sophisticated set of results than the same query from a user not in that area of specialty.

 And the following figure illustrates the data gathering and surveillance setup:

Notice that the “User Following Engine” is intended and set up to monitor a users’ entire social network landscape and personal blogosphere. As such, this technology could considerably amplify the dangers of existing surveillance technology.

Though a patent application does not imply the product is ready to be rolled out, it does provide a glimpse of the company’s intentions for setting up a partnership with Facebook and other social networking portals.

Original Source: GeekWire

Tags: filter bubble, Microsoft