Our reliance on Google, Yahoo, Bing & Aol to serve up web pages has become a debilitating disease from most people using the web today. If something doesn’t exist on the first two or three pages in our minds it probably doesn’t exist and has developed an entire industry of “experts” to help companies find there way to the top. Although there are exceptions, we often choose to explore only the first few choices provided to us. And one of Google’s latest inventions, Google Instant, is amplifying the problem.

So, what’s the problem with instant search results and algorithms that pull content based on words and phrases in web pages? Well, nothing really.

There’s another part of the equation that isn’t immediately noticed when you are searching the web or even Facebook that is plaguing the internet — personalized search results.

Aside from the links we click on, algorithms, “pandas” and spiders are the ones who help decide what our choices are on the web. Normally this is a good thing, we can find more information related to our search query that is relative to other topics, interests and sites we’ve visited in the past and Facebook’s instant personalizations of web sites can also help you identify articles your friends have read and enjoyed. However, as Eli Pariser will explain in the video below, this method of personalization can cut us off from the rest of the connected world by filtering out what it thinks we “don’t” need to see. It can exclude anything from breaking news and events happening locally or around the world.

What do you think — Does instant personalization of the web lead to better productivity or a limited view of the world? Is there a happy medium? Where should search engines draw the line?

Video originally found on Lifehacker – The Problem with Your Google Search Result Feedback Loop (and What You Can Do About It).

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There is an interesting presentation concerning “cars as art” from chris bangle (car designer at BMW).

It is on the newly redesigned TED site, which (while slow) is simply the most articulate design conversation taking place today.

Also if you happen to be in the Phoenix area you should go see “Curves of Steel, Streamlined Automobile Design April 1 – June 3, 2007″

“Emerging from aerodynamic studies seeking to improve the speed of ships and airplanes, streamlining is characterized by smooth, curvilinear shapes idealized in the tear drop shape. Amidst the Great Depression and strains of the impending war, the sleek, futuristic look of streamlined design represented an optimistic future of science and technology and provided a stimulus to the market by making former more ornamental styles look outmoded. The look of the designs became equally important to its physical ability to reduce drag and improve efficiency. While the design of the 1937 Delahaye 145 proved itself when it won the “Million Franc Prize” Grand Prix, the 1939 Delahaye 165 Cabriolet by renowned designers Figoni and Falaschi was the darling of that year’s New York World’s Fair, curving voluptuously from front to back in teardrop style and painted bright red.”

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