美国国家公共电台 NPR With Entry Into Interest Curation, Google Goes Head-To-Head With Facebook

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Facebook has a news feed. And soon when you go to Google to search whatever it is you search, you're going to get a kind of news feed there, too - although it's just going to be called a feed. NPR's Aarti Shahani reports.

AARTI SHAHANI, BYLINE¹: There's a good chance you're hungry for information you didn't even know you wanted, but Google knows. And now the tech giant is going to spoon-feed it to you.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

BEN GOMES: Google search should be working for you in the background, even when you're not searching.

SHAHANI: Ben Gomes is vice² president of engineering speaking at a press conference at Google's San Francisco offices.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

GOMES: It should be looking for information on the web to give you information that's important and relevant to you to further that interest that you had.

SHAHANI: Starting today, if you use the Pixel smartphone or the Google app, you'll see this feed. It's personalized and will continually draw from what Google has learned about you from places like search, Gmail, YouTube, your calendar, the Google home assistant and Chromecast.

Google and Facebook, which both make their money through advertising³, are in a constant tug-of-war. Google has tried and failed to build a hit social network. But this new product could draw more eyeballs. Engineering leader Shashi Thakur explains how it is fundamentally different from the competition.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

SHASHIDHAR THAKUR: It's not really about what your friends are interested in, which is really what other feeds might be.

SHAHANI: Say you have a secret passion for woodworking, relevant articles will show up in your feed, though if you've been reading up on herpes - maybe you had a scare - that should not show up because Google is using technology to filter out potentially upsetting or sensitive content.

When it comes to political interests, what you get on Facebook or Twitter is heavily influenced by your social network, and that could push you into groupthink. Thakur says the Google feed breaks you out of that because it's based on the same search algorithm that crawls and ranks the entire Internet, not just what your friends share.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

THAKUR: We are trying to provide a different - a variety of perspectives on any given topic.

SHAHANI: Though in the near future, a spokesperson says, Google does plan to add a like button to posts so users can actively⁴ indicate what they want to see. While it's not ready today, the feed will soon appear in your browser⁵ when you go to Google to search. The company declined to say if they would include advertisements in the feed.

Aarti Shahani, NPR News, San Francisco.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

3 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

4 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

5 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。