I noticed the other day that Twitter is now suggesting people that I might enjoy following based on the people I already do follow. So far, I really enjoy it because it’s a good time saver for identifying how to expand my following base. I use Twellow.com as well for more detailed category searching and geo-targeting. Side note: For all the people predicting the demise of Twitter by now, it’s proving to be the little engine that could.

Yet, it’s occurred to me that there’s still ample room for a tool that really, really just gets me. It can see what I like, such as the articles I click on or download. And from there, it can pinpoint – not suggest – websites and articles that I find interesting.

That’s the next challenge I see right now for social media tools – there’s a lot of guessing and suggesting of things I might like, but it’s only so accurate. It’s just putting a lot of stuff out there that I can like and a lot of stuff that I don’t. That’s OK. But it’s kind of like tossing 300 kids in a pool and trying to find yours instantly. You can’t do it that quickly. Little Billy’s in there, but it’s going to take some time to find him among the other kids.

What I’m getting at is there’s still an opportunity for a social media tool to be so much more customized and actually “learn” what people like and get “smarter” about those choices. Yes, there are some nominees here, but they aren’t there yet. For example, StumbleUpon can allow you to indicate your preferences, but it’s also influenced by friends and fellow “stumblers.” Maybe this is a very un-social thing of me to say, but sometimes I don’t want or care about that. I want my preferences to appear first and foremost.

Let me here you naysayers: “But what about our privacy?”

Rest assured, I don’t want other people to know my preferences or yours without our consent. Those preferences are private, mine alone and should be my choice to share with the rest of the world. Not Google’s choice, Facebook’s choice or anybody else’s. That said, I don’t mind if a tool that keeps my preferences private can be remarkably customized to my tastes and only becomes more customized to those tastes with each day.

The next great opportunity isn’t in giving me a stream of endless options but in supplying me with the laser-focused paths that otherwise save me the time of searching.

There’s always going to be room for improvement. And when we cross over from suggestions to really intelligent recommendations, well, that’s a tool I’d like to try out and provided it’s easy to use, one I’d like to incorporate into what I do daily.

How about you? Are there any tools you’ve used in the online world that match your preferences amazingly well in recommending accurate content? I’d love to hear about them.

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