Ambient Findability

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Ambient Findability opens with a straightforward enough question: “How did you get here?” Not on a spirtual or physical level, that is, but how did you come to find the book itself. Author Peter Morville is interested in how people come to find things, as well as how things come to find people. As the supply of information in the world continues to grow at a frightening pace through blogs, websites, podcasts, radio, TV, and online video, the book examines the myriad ways in which we filter, navigate and search our way through the information.

The book itself covers a wide range of subject regarding how we process information. The opening chapter covers the definition of ambient findability, which boils down to the emergence of a world where we have the tools that allows us to locate anyone or anything, from anywhere, and at anytime. Other chapters cover how marketing is being transformed along with the marketplace it serves, decision-making and information interaction.

It’s really difficult to categorise and summarise this book, but that’s in no way a criticism – the writing is sharp, all the terminology is explained, and the real world stories are used well and illustrate points perfectly. It’s just difficult to provide a concise summary! The book can serve as a useful guide to marketers and user interface designers, pointing out subtle considerations that may otherwise not come to mind. However, I found that the book had another purpose. Morville sounds warnings throughout the book about the privacy implications of findability, and as a result the book serves as an excellent overview of all aspects of this increasingly pervasive aspect of our world.

Tags: bookreview, books, findability