The Database of Intentions is simply this: The aggregate results of every search ever entered, every result list ever tendered, and every path taken as a result.
This information represents, in aggregate form, a place holder for the intentions of humankind - a massive database of desires, needs, wants, and likes that can be discovered, supoenaed, archived, tracked, and exploited to all sorts of ends. Such a beast has never before existed in the history of culture, but is almost guaranteed to grow exponentially from this day forward. This artifact can tell us extraordinary things about who we are and what we want as a culture. And it has the potential to be abused in equally extraordinary fashion.
His recent update of this model (see image below) has expanded the fields from only search queries to incorporate concepts from social media (social networks, status updates and location-based platforms such as Foursquare) and e-commerce. The argument is that all of these things must be looked at in a holistic manner; a purchase may originate from search, for example. It makes perfect sense that this model should be updated as the Internet continues to undergo evolution; undoubtedly there will be many new additions in another 5 years.
When thinking about the current and future state of this concept, two things in particular came to mind.
What About What I Know?
Many additions to this model have been made by Batelle’s commenters, such as What I Play (music sites). However, I believe that the key missing signal is “What I Know.”
Information is omnipresent and inherently social. It can be found in many places – not just in search queries and status updates, but also in other sources such as an endless array of content websites. People have many motivations for seeking information such as news; the Pew Internet & American Life’s recent study reported that 72% of American news consumers follow the news because they enjoy talking to others about what is happening in the world (thus leading to status updates), while 69% feel that keeping up with the news is a social or civic obligation.News also comes from many sources, with nearly two-thirds of respondents reporting that they get news from a combination of both online and offline sources in a given day. The majority of online news consumers receive their news from 2-5 websites (but don’t have a favorite). Over half of respondents share links to news via email or posts on social networking sites, and three quarters have received news from those social sources.
The bottom line is that people care about what they know, and they receive that knowledge from a number of sources. This seems separate enough to be an additional signal within the Database of Intentions, and should be looked at alongside the others in a holistic manner.What’s Next?
When I first glanced at the Database of Intentions Chart I was struck by its similarity to the classic “Five Ws” journalism teaching. “Who,” “What” and “Where” appear to be covered thoroughly. “When” is inherent in each of the signals; there are timestamps attached to purchases, status updates, check-ins, and searches. The missing pieces appear to be “Why” and “How.” Why are consumers doing what they’re doing? How are they making decisions?This is where online marketing is heading. Traditional marketing is focused very deeply on the why and the how; hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on focus groups, surveys and ethnographic research designed to get into the heads of the consumers and find out what motivates them and how they make decisions and use products.
Online marketing, on the other hand, is still focused very much on the “What” and the “Where.” There is so much data available that we haven’t even figured out what to do with most of it; we’ve barely only scraped the service. The missing piece, I believe, is connecting all of the dots. The enormous amount of data we have access to offers many clues about consumers; we know what sites they visit, what they search for, and what they ultimately buy. This changes the game for consumer behavior, and marketers are only beginning to figure out what the new rules are. The million dollar question is: what does it mean when you put it all together?I will be excited to see John Batelle’s 2015 version of the Database of Intentions. Only one thing is certain: it won’t look the same as today’s.
thank goodness for rule breaking! I love your page.Thank you for another great article.so you are allowed to change them whenever you want.
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