The Future of Content Recommendation Services

If you're overly concerned about data privacy you'll want to stop reading right now because I'm about to give you a glimpse of the future that will make you bristle.

For the rest of you, I'd like to describe a vision I have of how content services will dramatically improve, become widely used, and even paid for, in the not too distant future.

You're probably familiar with services like Taboola and Outbrain. They're the technologies behind all the "You may also like" or "Sponsored content" blocks of links that have become ubiquitous on websites. They use sophisticated algorithms to suggest related content you might be interested in reading.

Then there's Google. My Android phone's Google app does a terrific job presenting nuggets of information I might find useful. It's equally awful at it too though. On a recent trip through Atlanta it suggested the CDC as one of the nearby attractions I might want to check out. I realize Ebola is a hot topic right now but is there really anything in my Google-accessible content stream that would suggest the CDC as an interesting destination for me?

Google's app, as well as its News service, are both casting an extremely wide net in the hopes that something in their recommendation stream will cause me to click. Every year I find Google's stream suggesting fewer and fewer truly relevant articles for me. This, despite the fact that they have access to so much of what I'm doing, where I'm going, and what I'm interested in.

What's wrong with this picture? These services should be improving, not simply providing an even wider pipeline of content, most of which doesn't interest me at all.

What's missing is a service that pays much closer attention to who I am and what's likely to engage me. That's one of the things I always liked about Zite, the content service that recommends more content based on what you've previously read in the app. I used to spend a great deal of time in Zite every day. Then they got acquired and for some reason their stream just isn't as engaging for me as it used to be.

What's needed is a service that is much more closely aligned with everything I do, or as much of my life as I'm willing to let it access. I'm talking about my email inbox as well as the websites I visit and even my work and personal calendars. Here are a few use cases for the service I'd like to see:

• Prepare for trips - It's nice that Google shows a card for this afternoon's flight status, but they could do so much more. How about tracking my personal interests and serving up recommendations for downtime activities? Knowledge of my interests would hopefully prevent an app from suggesting I visit the CDC, for example. This service could also interact with my TripIt account, notice that I made a car rental reservation and suggest a better alternative (e.g., a better rate with another carrier, one that earns me miles on my preferred airline, or a better option like Uber or Lyft, etc.) How about a few facts and figures about where I'm heading? This destination info is available on Wikipedia, so it would be easy to tap into that content source as well as many others.
• Provide news and research for upcoming meetings - The assumption here is that I'll allow this service to access my daily calendar. When it sees I have a 2-hour meeting with XYZ Corp next week it begins early by creating and sending me a snapshot of the organization as well as noteworthy news about XYZ Corp. The detailed version arrives a week before the meeting, giving me plenty of time to become an expert on the company. The day before or the morning of the meeting I then get a shorter follow-up with any updates that weren't available earlier.
• Stay on top of the competition - The key here is to know the company I work for and the industry we're part of. Better yet, if I work for a large, multi-sector company, the service knows exactly which area I focus on and tailors everything around that space. It then uses all the publicly available data sources to feed me updates and insights about the competition.
• Tap into streams from leaders and celebrities - How would you like to gain access to the news and content streams being delivered to people like Warren Buffet or Jeff Bezos? Obviously they'll want to filter their public version to avoid accidentally leaking confidential information, but there would still be enough content to make for some very interesting reading. Rather than waiting for Bill Gates to tell us what books he read and recommended from last year, let's see what's on his inbound content stream today.
• All this, with no manual configuration required - Some elements of what I've described above are available today, if you're willing to spend a lot of time configuring your keywords and splicing together multiple services. Don't forget that your interests change over time...and so does your calendar, of course. I want a service that is always up-to-date based on what it sees me doing throughout the day and week. It needs to be fully automated and change as my interests and focus change.

I can see multiple flavors of this service. The simplest one is free and is funded by ads and sponsorships, just like many of Google's existing services. A paid version eliminates the ads and comes with more bells and whistles. And remember that leaders/celebrities idea? Those could be structured as subscriptions to that individual's feed. Plenty of people would pay a monthly fee for access to these streams. And although Warren Buffett doesn't need this additional income, he could always have it flow to his favorite charity.

We've got a long way to go before we'll see a service like this, but I'll be among the first in line to sign up for it when one arrives.