Kolya on 31/10/2010 at 14:00

---

When I search on Google I find different things than you do. When you post a video on youtube I can't see it. Hulu? Doesn't work here. It's great TTLG has a Spotify list. But as much as I love music, I can't get on it. Not available in this country.
We may be on the same page on the web, but we get custom ads, localised content, features and descriptions. It could be nice, because we might find and get things that are more relevant to each of us. But mostly it's not.

It reminds me how MTV London who used to be the music channel for all of Europe were split up and localised, and that's how the shit began. I guess this looked like a great idea back then. Instead of one commercial slot you could sell 10 and actually reach the persons you were looking for. More money for MTV and more value for advertisers. And instead of Ray Cokes we got awkward VJ clones spluttering between colourful wallboards and ringtones until no one even cared any more.

It's not that localisation and customisation are bad things themselves, but somehow they always end up being only good for marketing, while killing the common experience. They're setting up borders where there used to be none. National borders and even individual borders.
TV in the old days used to be all about that common experience. The net ended these in RL but placed people in new virtual groups, collected by interest. So what's happening when my net isn't your net any more, when our web experiences drift apart? Is that even of any importance with all the millions of websites out there?

Melan on 31/10/2010 at 14:18

---

USENET --> forums --> blogs and blogrolls --> a scattered cloud of fragmented social apps from Twitter to tumblr

On the other hand: Facebook.

Sulphur on 31/10/2010 at 15:55

---

(http://akas.imdb.com/) http://akas.imdb.com/ ?

Dunno what the akas is for, but see if it works. Great policy, innit? They look up your IP address and serve the titles in the language of the country they trace it to. 'parently you've got to register and change user preferences or otherwise use a proxy.

Kolya on 31/10/2010 at 23:31

---

Interesting you would make that example. A few years ago another social network (StudiVZ) used to be much more popular around here. They were basically a localised Facebook clone.
But now everyone has switched to Facebook, despite the fact that parts of it are still shown in English. Of course FB just had better software but I think the fact that everyone pools there now also supports the connecting point of a common experience. That is, having common topics to talk about (eg the FB games) with more people. So often localisation and content customisation seem less advantageous for users than for marketing.
Perhaps North Americans cannot relate to this topic very well because most of these services (Google, Youtube, Facebook) are based in the US. Just think of it as region locked DVDs. On the internet.

Melan on 1/11/2010 at 10:51

---

Kolya: something similar happened in Hungary; the two domestic social network sites (iWiW and MyVIP) were largely displaced by Facebook, but that's the same thing that has happened to its US competitors. Its sheer size gives it its own network externalities; if you sign up for a social network, FB gives you the best range of content. Its central role in organising peoples' lives is somewhat contrary to the fragmentation that's otherwise happening. OTOH, it has also become a venue for people to create personalised sub-communities of their own, so the picture is not all that clear.