I’m not going to get away from it, realistically, am I? Amazon gives you a discount if you use their A9 search engine – which disconcertingly remembers not just my name, but also a couple of slightly embarrassing searches I did in 2003. Google probably already stores every search I do, anyway, given Blogger recognises me by name when I go there and Google owns Blogger. (Btw, A9 isn’t a new search engine. It uses the Google algorithm, but displays stuff differently.)

I must remember to use the SwitchProxy extension to Firefox and go via an anonymous proxy next time I want to do an embarrassing search.

3 thoughts on “embarrassing searches

  1. bicyclemark

    What qualifies as an embarassing search these days anyway?

  2. Jill

    Oh, those late-night searches, you know, the ones where you get obsessive and think your child might have some strange disease, or your that guy who keeps talking to you in the library might have a psychic disorder or some sexual fetish might be rather fascinating or there might be some kind of support group for your girlfriend’s relationship problems, or you’ve been looking for photos of your lover and his exes or whatever, you know, I suppose they’re not really that embarrassing, in a way, but I like to think of them as between me and my powerbook. It’s disconcerting seeing them all lined up every time I go to a search engine.

  3. bicyclemark

    Ah.. yes.. everytime I look through my browsers history I think… “Who the hell are you?” and then I delete it all and say “im a new man!”
    Have fun in Sussex… say hi to the U of Amsterdam people, cause they’re my people, I’m hoping they meet my favorite bloggers since I’m not there to do it myself.

Leave a Reply to bicyclemark Cancel reply

Recommended Posts

Triple book talk: Watch James Dobson, Jussi Parikka and me discuss our 2023 books

Thanks to everyone who came to the triple book talk of three recent books on machine vision by James Dobson, Jussi Parikka and me, and thanks for excellent questions. Several people have emailed to asked if we recorded it, and yes we did! Here you go! James and Jussi’s books […]

Image on a black background of a human hand holding a graphic showing the word AI with a blue circuit board pattern inside surrounded by blurred blue and yellow dots and a concentric circular blue design.
AI and algorithmic culture Machine Vision

Four visual registers for imaginaries of machine vision

I’m thrilled to announce another publication from our European Research Council (ERC)-funded research project on Machine Vision: Gabriele de Setaand Anya Shchetvina‘s paper analysing how Chinese AI companies visually present machine vision technologies. They find that the Chinese machine vision imaginary is global, blue and competitive.  De Seta, Gabriele, and Anya Shchetvina. “Imagining Machine […]

Do people flock to talks about ChatGPT because they are scared?

Whenever I give talks about ChatGPT and LLMs, whether to ninth graders, businesses or journalists, I meet people who are hungry for information, who really want to understand this new technology. I’ve interpreted this as interest and a need to understand – but yesterday, Eirik Solheim said that every time […]