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What he’d like to see is an information world that “gives us a bit of Justin Bieber and a bit of Afghanistan,” marked by controls that let us filter content by its relevance, importance, comfort (topics that can be difficult to discuss or read), challenge level and points of view (with an option to see “alternative”). Of course, much of that goes against the history of the Internet, which has been marked by its ability to connect like-minded people, both for good and for bad. In other words, Google and Facebook could build such controls and even bake more human editing into their algorithms, but do people even want them?

Participation in most of the social media and word-of-mouth activities was highest among younger adults, almost one-half of whom gave in-person advice based on online information. Respondents ages 18 to 24 were also more likely than older Web users to post ratings and reviews, share links, and have a blog.

Forum participants were significantly more likely to take part in all the activities queried. Notably: 65% of forum contributors give advice offline based on information found online, compared with 35% of noncontributors. 66% of forum contributors post online ratings and reviews, compared with 16.8% of noncontributors. 43.6% of forum contributors share links to articles and reviews, versus 12% of noncontributors. 20.6% of forum contributors publish a blog, compared with 2.1% of noncontributors. Users of forums, who are already actively engaged in online social activity, make for “enthusiastic consumers and influential brand advocates,”

The Facebook Recommendations plugin gives users personalized suggestions for pages on your site they might like, based on what people are sharing. Otlican displays the Recommendations at the bottom of each article — she’s found that nearly 0.6% of readers click on content in this box. You can even see how this feature will look on your site before you add it — simply enter your website address here, click on the page and it will show you the recommendations Facebook already has for your site.