Tired of having to dodge the internet the day after you missed an episode of your favourite TV show? Fret not, little one, for Google has a plan to end your spoiler misery.
The search engine giant, which probably knows more about you than your loved ones, is working on a way to monitor how far along you are in a TV series or movie trilogy or the like.
It will then, hopefully, intercept social media commentary before it reaches your innocent eyes, “generating a spoiler warning”, which you will need to click through in order to see the content.
So say, for example, you live in Ireland or the UK and you adore both Game of Thrones and social media.
Well the idea behind Google’s patent would basically stop you from uncovering the no doubt myriad of spoilers that will surface this Monday, in the 24 hours between its latest season’s airing in the US and UK.
It’s unclear how the patent would work in any form of comprehensive manner though, as merely logging onto Facebook is as good as signing up for spoilers.
Google would essentialy have to come to an agreement with social networks that it doesn’t own, which seems highly unlikely, or else work in its own little world of Google+, which wouldn’t be a whole lot of use to many of us.
Also there isn’t one defined way to go about monitoring the TV choices of users. Within Netflix it’s simple, as users are contained within one service, which then reaches out to connected social media sites.
There’s always the opt-in model, which could see consumers log their progress in shows, or just let Google do what Google does best, monitor our behaviour itself.
Google itself isn’t entirely committing itself to the idea just yet, either.
“We hold patents on a variety of ideas – some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don’t,” a Google spokesperson said. “Prospective product announcements should not necessarily be inferred from our patents.”
Still, it would be a fine invention if it ever came to pass successfully.
Distraught user of social media image, via Shutterstock
