The Google app—available on both Android and iOS—is getting ‘a new feed experience’, but it’s less a Facebook clone than you might first expect.

First feeds

Google has been tentatively pushing the appeal of its customised feed capability since December 2016. Back then, they claimed that ‘the more you use Google, the more tailored and relevant your feed will become’.

Refining the machine

Using increasingly intelligent machine learning algorithms, Google says this July 2017 rejuvenation of your feed ‘will not only be based on your interactions with Google, but also factor in what’s trending in your area and around the world’.

Better than you know yourself

TechCrunch has called it the ‘single-player feed’ because it’s an interest based stream that generates independently of the likes, shares and emotes. The factors that shape other, more social graphs are here replaced by pure behavioural history.

As ‘Big Brother’ as it may sound, ‘the more you use Google, the better we can make your life’ sentiment still holds true. This allows it to create a feed that is what the user actually wants, rather than one that they mistakenly believe they want.

Creepy as it may feel, it may also be true.

Are you comfortable with the way tech giants collect use and search data to design services that better meet your needs and wants?

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