It is sad how often predictions of the past are overturned by actual experience. I felt as if I were reading ancient history when I picked up 'Interface Culture' by Steven Johnson. Maybe not ancient, but definately immature in information. Some things it said were so self-evident to someone in today's technology it was suprising to even see them mentioned. Others were a little far-flung. I definately think that if agent technology was going allow advertisers to bury us in ads for things we couldn't live without, they would have done so already. Last time I checked my spam folder though, the spam is as generic and un-targeted as it was several years ago. No spam gets into my inbox in hotmail OR yahoo, and i'm pretty free with giving those addresses out to any shady site i might be signing up for.
The text-only Google ads that show up on nearly every site now are very unobtrusive and occasionally helpful, or pose as such anyway. They are so on-target usually with the content of the site that it's hard to resent their presence. A little supporting sidebar text is much less obtrusive and directly relevant then gentleman's club and antidepressant billboards seen driving down the highway. Other then that, as a general rule i turn most auto-updates to an 'ask me first' setting and i don't worry about my computer running things and pawning my information behind my back.
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