My Electronic Brain and how it helps me make decisions.

It is no surprise that people use the tools available to them.  Namely the computer and more specifically the internet.  From its beginnings, the personal computer was a revolution that was not even realized by its creators.  Its magnitude has only yet become to be realized.

The buying decision model character  for most would go as followed

What is interesting is how these steps have changed over the years with the addition of the computer.  The first two have changed significantly.  Need Recognition as the first step can be as simple as "I want a new car".  Then what do most people usually do?  Well for starters once they have determined what car they want (Which well use mine for example)

My Dream car would be a brand new "2011 BMW M3 Convertible"

Once I've established my desire, I then begin my Information Search.  I can start that by using the most readily available sea information... the internet!

My first google search came up with Cars.com a popular site with an array of options to tweak everything from colors to features which can also give me payment quotes.  I could also get a quick quote on insurance from Geico.com and see what my payment would be.

Now that I have a better idea of all the features and my insurance quote. The last thing to do is find a dealer near me.  All I need to do is type my Zip Code and BMW and this is the first thing that comes up.

Now it took longer for me to explain that then to actually do all the research.  There is so much more information for me to look through from all the google images to the countless upon countless of websites with used M3s, review, tips and anything else you can think of.

Information searching time, depending on what your looking for, has been cut down with the addition of the internet up to as much as 70%.  



Other Resources:

http://crews.org/curriculum/ex/compsci/articles/generations.htm

How do they know what I want?!?!

I find it interesting that some people have no idea all the data that they are giving for free in a lot of the services they use everyday.  Obviously some of the bigger ones being like Facebook, which can be considered a mecca of all storing houses for information actually does a beautiful way and an enriching content view for the individual user.  Another company that does this well is Amazon who also keeps records of all the sites visited by an IP address.  What is surprising is only 5% of online shoppers actually buy anything when visiting a website.

What are the trade-offs?  In many cases your privacy but they are also taking a way our ability to make decisions for ourselves.  Who is to say that I actually want to see that coupon for Home Goods or the special they have on Nike sneakers.  With all this over analyzation of your  buying and surfing activity how can we protect ourselves?  Just like in anything there are plenty of things that you can do to make your data safer.  One of the most important of all is to back up all files on your computer as often as possible on an external hard drive.  Also using security softwares like Norton and other popular spyware and virus protectors make for a great defense on all the trojans out there.

Information is so readily available these days its really scary.  The best thing to do is to be mindful of the sites your going on and try not to put to much information out there unless absolutely necessary.

Other Resources:

McFarland, Josh  (2011), “The Data-Fueled Display Ad Revival” Customer Data(August 8), <http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/73027.html?wlc=1315962063>.



Miyazaki, Anthony (2011), "Advertisers Know What You Do... Is Behavioral Targeting Really That Bad?"<http://e-marketingforsensiblefolk.blogspot.com/2011/09/behavioral-targeting.html>


Shinder, Deb (2006), "10 things you can do to protect your data" <http://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-things-you-can-do-to-protect-your-data/6061927>