educational consortium, that provide access to journal articles, e-books, and other sources of written information: “They found that people using the sites exhibited ‘a form of skimming activity,’ hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they’d already visited” (7). The college’s five-year study observed “computer logs documenting the behavior of visitors to two popular research sites, one operated by the British Library and one by a U.K. However, he cites a recent study published by the University College of London that “suggests that we may well be in the midst of a sea change in the way we read and think” (7). He then offers that many of his literarily-inclined friends are also observing a similar phenomenon in their own lives.Ĭarr points out that these anecdotes do not offer empirical proof of anything, and scientific experiments on “the long-term neurological and psychological” effects of the Internet have not yet been completed (7). Carr asserts that “what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation” (4). ![]() They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought” (4). While he concedes that the Internet has provided the gift of “immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of information,” he also cites the media theorist Marshal McLuhan’s more complicated observation: “edia are not just passive channels of information. He attributes this change to the increase in his use of the Internet.Ĭarr states that he’s not alone in this as the Internet quickly becomes a “universal medium” (4). He finds it increasingly more difficult to read deeply and with subtlety, as he loses his concentration and gets distracted and restless while reading. He feels that his brain has changed the way it processes information and thinks. Carr uses this allusion to assert that he, like HAL, has had a growing feeling that “someone, or something, has been tinkering with brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory” (2). In the initial allusion, Carr summarizes the moment toward the end of the film in which “the supercomputer HAL pleads with the implacable astronaut Dave Bowman in a famous and weirdly poignant scene Bowman, having nearly been sent to a deep-space death by the malfunctioning machine, is calmly, coldly disconnecting the memory circuits that control its artificial ‘brain.’ ‘Dave, my mind is going,’ HAL says, forlornly. That version of the browser (Canary > Dev > Beta > Stable) is three levels from the release that the vast majority of people use.The essay begins and ends with an allusion to Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. This feature will appear over the “coming weeks” for Chrome Canary users in the US on Android. You can also stay up-to-date and ask us questions via on Twitter or via email to is also hosting a Following on the Open Web I/O 2021 session at 11 a.m. We welcome feedback from publishers, bloggers, creators, and citizens of the open web (like you!) on this experiment as we aim to build deeper engagement between users and web publishers in Chrome. Similarly, Google would not yet comment on whether it will come to iOS or desktop browsers. ![]() The company will provide more information to websites if that’s the case, but the only publisher guidance today is making sure a site’s RSS is up-to-date. Google today considers Follow an experiment, and will evaluate publisher and end user feedback in deciding whether to graduate/widely launch it. That said, if a site doesn’t use RSS, Google will fall back to its existing content index to keep users updated. The Chrome team wants to create “deeper connections” between publishers and readers, while making it easier to “keep up with favorite websites.” Google’s Follow solution leverages the browser many people have installed, as well as the existing open RSS web standard. That said, the algorithmic feed will use your follows to surface content. Once subscribed, new content from those publishers will appear in the New Tab page as part of a “Following” tab that makes use of cards with cover images, headlines, and shows when something was published.Ĭompared to Discover (which is still available in Chrome as “For you”) and its topic-based approach, users are actively choosing what sites they want to see. It appears at the very bottom and includes the site’s favicon and name. Google is now looking to reverse the trend with Chrome trialing a “Follow” feature that more or less brings an RSS reader to the New Tab page.Īs you browse websites, Chrome will show a “Follow” button when you open the overflow menu (from the top-right corner). Web browsers used to feature feed aggregators, but those built-in capabilities have since been phased out.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |