Google's Latest Experiment is Keen, an Automated, Machine Learning Based Version of Pinterest

A new project called Keen is launching today from Google's in-house incubator for new ideas, Area 120, to help users track their interests. The app is like a modern rethinking of the Google Alerts service, which allows users to monitor the web for specific content. From a report: Except instead of sending emails about new Google Search results, Keen leverages a combination of machine learning techniques and human collaboration to help users curate content around a topic. Each individual area of interest is called a "keen" -- a word often used to reference someone with an intellectual quickness. The idea for the project came about after co-founder C.J. Adams realized he was spending too much time on his phone mindlessly browsing feeds and images to fill his downtime. He realized that time could be better spent learning more about a topic he was interested in -- perhaps something he always wanted to research more or a skill he wanted to learn. To explore this idea, he and four colleagues at Google worked in collaboration with the company's People and AI Research (PAIR) team, which focuses on human-centered machine learning, to create what has now become Keen.

staykeen.com

[OMBad]

The URL is staykeen.com. It works great! As an added bonus Google will know what you are interested in and can tailor advertising to suit.

Re:

[backslashdot]

As an added bonus Google will know what you are interested in and can tailor advertising to suit.

Awesome! Would be nice if they would help me get rid of some of the cash I've got lying around too.

Who cares about Google "experiments" anymore?

[ccr]

The death clock for it is already probably ticking. Gone in a year or few. Investing any time on it would be a waste.

Re: Who cares about Google "experiments" anymore?

[gsdfa]

Google has the attention span of a toddler.

Re:

[UnknownSoldier]

Exactly.

Just another statistic-in-waiting for Google graveyard [killedbygoogle.com]

I see Google Hangouts is scheduled to be executed in Dec. 2020. What are people using for alternatives? Slack? Teams?

Dead link farm

[istartedi]

If they want to duplicate Pinterest, they could just take regular Google search results from a year ago, check the URLs, and only supply dead links. That's what Pinterest does for me most of the time. It's a shame too, because a lot of the Pinterest links look good (that's why they got pinned in the first place), but then you can't follow the link.

Wrong way

[SuperKendall]

Keen is going exactly the opposite of where you want to take Pinterest. Keen is trying to give you more content, which is not what people need - we have so many avenues for discovery already...

Something that would be useful is an AI tool to somehow help you better manage what you had collected already.

Remember Google + ?

[Bohnanza]

This was the only thing I used it for.

Re:

[Greyfox]

I loved that thing. You could pretend you had social media, but no one ever read or responded to anything. I put skydiving posts in there for 2 years, thought my parents were reading them and knew what I was up to. Then I took my sister and her daughter on a tandem jump. My sister posted that on Facebook and 10 minutes later I get this call from mom, "WHAT DID YOU DO?!!!!!" Google+ was so much nicer. Since it's gone, I'm going to have to build an anti-social networking tool to take its place.

Heh, funny st

Does it work for porn?

[Fly Swatter]

Asking for a friend...

Serious non porn comment: Pinterest became so useful I had to add it to my adblock url list because it simply appears in too many google searches and winds up wasting my time even accidentally clicking that result. I guess that was the point of pinterest though, right?

Re:

[sheramil]

Pinterest became so useful I had to add it to my adblock url list because it simply appears in too many google searches...

Wow, does that work? I've heard it's possible to filter out pinterest results from a google search, but none of the suggestions i've seen do anything useful. using ublock Origin, here.

Re:

[Greyfox]

Really? I can't remember the last time Google showed me an orifice, even with safe search off. Bing, on the other hand, will pop up pages of them on even the most innocuous of terms. I do have to say it's much less likely to do so with safe search on. Definitely never forget to include the search words "document preparation system" if you're looking for info on LaTeX. And I was going to be all "Try it with 'Forest of Dongs'", but surprisingly few actual dongs in there. And for some reason, the first result

Another Google product ...

[RitchCraft]

... destined to die in a year or so. So sick of Google this and that any way. It's surely just another way to track you.

Re:

[laktech]

okay so if foobar inc launches it you'd use it? they're all tracking you.

Re:

[RitchCraft]

Nope, probably wouldn't use Foobar's product either if it's web or social media based. Like you said, they're all tracking you. I have zero social media accounts. Never had one, never will. Just too creepy and antisocial.

Keen

[backslashdot]

They are keen for now, but soon they will get bored and lose interest.

What about people whose only interest is

[sabbede]

Commander Keen? Will that break Google?