10 cool new technologies you need to check out

Instant-on access for any PC. A netbook with a detachable screen. And a cheaper way to get out from under your home mortgage. These and other creative Web services, software and hardware were introduced at the DEMO 09 conference.

By Edward N. Albro

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7 Billion People: Personalized Shopping

7 Billion People hopes to make shopping a more personal experience. The developers of 7 Billion People say they use linguistic and behavioral psychology to analyze what you do on the Web and from that data figure out what kind of shopper you are.

Their demo showed the service running on top of Amazon.com (though they noted that Amazon is not a customer). One company exec went into the site and immediately drilled down to the specs of a camera he was looking for, ignoring all reviews by other customers and recommendations of other popular products. When he returned to the site, his experience was tailored to him — specs were front-and-center, while most information about reviews and recommendations by other shoppers was buried.

His colleague went to the same pages, but clicked first on user reviews and information like "Other people who looked at this product also looked at ...." When he went to an Amazon page for another product, the site immediately opened up the user reviews page, figuring he would probably be interested.

If 7 Billion People can get this complicated artificial intelligence right, the service could actually make online shopping more efficient for everyone.

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