Better Control of How Search Results Are Optimized for You
Why?
For many of the things you search the web for, search engines will have an algorithm to show you what they think are the best results for you. Some try to deduct from information they have on your behavior (search history, clicks, etc.), what would be personally best for you. They also offer some simple options for more advanced search, like similarity or boolean operators. Wouldn’t you like more control in an easier way for better results?
How?
Allow the user more control over what he thinks is best. Allow him to say “I put more weight on anything by or connected to the following people when you are returning results for this search,” or “don’t show me anything that relates to an individual concept or a subject.” All of these options should not rely on me deciding what keywords are relevant or not, but more on a conceptual level. The algorithm should be able to deduce in a useful way what belongs to these concepts, people, situations, etc., without you having to “spell it out.”
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Help Dealing With Lots of Email
Why?
Email carries no cost for the sender but is very costly to the recipient because it might be a waste of time.
How?
Have an email client app (on smartphones, tablets or the web), that helps you get rid of time wasting emails quickly by:
1. Telling you how long the email is.
2. Estimating how long will it take to read it, taking into consideration external links that you might have to visit.
3. Showing how many users considered the email or the sender as irrelevant or spam.
4. Based on all these factors, plus your previous behavior, and some text analysis, show you a recommendation of either “delete” or “read.”
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Political, Moral and Other Preferences Filter for Your News Consumption
Why?
You just don’t want to see all those irritating news items. The ones that are making you angry because of their stupidity and their lack of understanding what is true and right.
How?
Have an intelligent filter built into the news app (or Facebook) that you tell all your biases to. You teach the filter what irritates you politically, morally and any other conceptual subject of irritation. The filter should be intelligent enough to understand the content of the news and not show it if it is deemed irritating for you.
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