Google News finally let me quit Pitcherlist Fantasy Baseball
I noticed last week a notification on my phone asking me to choose news sources for Google News. Wish I’d screenshotted it, but the result was I selected a few news sources and finally had my first morning commute without Pitcherlist Fantasy Baseball (which I talked about here).
Keep in mind, I had nothing against them, but I don’t baseball, I don’t fantasy baseball, I don’t fantasy sports, and I have no idea why Google News decided that every day I needed to listen to them and CBS Sports (although my going to that Portland Pickles game might have something to do with that.) I also was getting a lot of very specific Chicago-area news, but that I think I might have a clue behind why Google thought I might want to know Chicago.
I never did figure out what the deal with fantasy sports was. That’s not something I ever even searched for. But anyway.
The Verge is reporting that the algorithmic ‘Your News Update’ is gone from Assistant, and for the past week or so it has been for me. I selected my news sources and now am finding my commute 100% less fantasy sports, and also 100% more me thinking “you know, if I did like that, it was a pretty decent daily podcast…”
Much like my beef with the Sense Home Energy Monitor’s inability to direct and train it, the Assistant news selection routine was maddening because it was so close to great, but being forced to appreciate something on a daily basis … damn it, now I have to subscribe to that podcast as I miss it. Thank you Google, and I mean that in the meanest way possible, you got me interested in something despite my near total lack of interest in it. Hope you’re happy. Guess I subscribe here.
[The Verge]
