[Sigia-l] For sale: "Best Buys"

[Jonathan Baker-Bates]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sigia-l-bounces at asis.org 
> [mailto:sigia-l-bounces at asis.org] On Behalf Of Ziya Oz
> Sent: 18 April 2007 06:14
> To: SIGIA-L
> Subject: [Sigia-l] For sale: "Best Buys"
> 
> A few years ago there was here a raging thread on the notion 
> of "Best Bets/Best Buys" as being, uhm, best practice for 
> 'guiding' users into meaningful results. Everybody was doin' 
> it and how harmful could it possibly be?
> 
> I said then and I still think today "Best Bets" is normative 
> and, in many situations, plain evil.
> 
> A new study at Columbia sheds some light on how it influences choices:
> 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/magazine/15wwlnidealab.t.html>
> 
> I'm hoping that this is no longer so counterintuitive for 
> some people as it was then.

Well, in the spirit of keeping things sizzling around here: it's
certainly more enlightening than all that circumlocutory gibberish in
"The Tipping Point." 

Jonathan


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