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July 26, 2013, 2:10 p.m.
LINK: blog.mozilla.org  ➚   |   Posted by: Caroline O'Donovan   |   July 26, 2013

Mozilla Labs is sharing some results of experiments around personalized content (or what they call UP — User Personalization).

Writes Mozilla’s Harry Anderson of giving consumers more individualized control over content, “One recent example is The Guardian giving users the option to turn off coverage of the Royal Baby on their website. This encourages and allows them to participate in the content exchange based on their personal interests.”

The basic idea behind the Mozilla Labs experiment is, if you let it, your browser can track your interests and help content platforms provide with you more relevant information.

As part of these experiments, our Labs team has been thinking about ways in which content creators and consumers could benefit from Web-based interests. For example, let’s say Firefox recognizes within the browser client, without any browsing history leaving my computer, that I’m interested in gadgets, comedy films, hockey and cooking. As I browse around the Web, I could choose when to share those interests with specific websites for a personalized experience. Those websites could then prioritize articles on the latest gadgets and make hockey scores more visible. Destinations like the Firefox Marketplace could recommend recipe and movie apps, even if it’s my first time visiting that site. And, as a user, I would have complete control over which of my interests are shared, and with which websites.

Those intrigued by the project and interested in giving feedback can check out their Google Group.

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