When I first got AOL in eighth grade, the program offered each member the option of having a "news profile." Each member would type in keywords and AOL would e-mail the member whatever news articles contained those words. I typed in "Hanson." I began receiving every press release and published article about the boy band the world could offer. It was the only news I read.
I believe AOL had the idea right --۠even back in 1996: Personalized news. Pretty soon, with a world of information at our fingertips, that kind of news will be the only thing that will interest anyone.
The difference between AOL and the future, however, is eerie. Right now, the Internet collects an amazing amount of information about each user's taste, preferences and hobbies, and it's all done secretly. Every time someone visits a website, it's recorded and offered to web users. People are profiled to be advertised to more accurately.
I believe this may go a step further with the news. In the future, "the news" won't be what impacts the world, but what impacts every individual's world. E-mail sites will begin to offer personalized news to their users. If one visits Snoop Dogg's homepage then they'll get the news on his latest drug arrest. If one visits AddictedToScrapbooking.com and a company that produces scrap books has to cut jobs, they would get that news in their e-mail the next morning.
This will be a feature that internet users look for in a news service. It could be offered through an e-mail provider, an ISP or maybe even news site will join in. One could go to The New York Times and it will filter through the news and present news matching with the user's information.
We will all be a detailed map of our interests and these interests will shape our news. There will no longer be a worldwide definition, just individual value.
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