“So it’s like Google?” the older man asked.

The younger man sat back from the desk, hands locked behind his head.  “Like Google?  It’s a thousand times more than Google.  It’s what Google wishes it was.  This will make Google look like pen and paper.  Google tells you what you ask for.  Our software tells you what you want.”

He smiled, cocksure.

“I’m not sure that yet another search engine is really going to be worth investing a lot of money in,” said the other.

The young man suddenly sat forward, leaning towards the prospect.  His face took on the zeal of a newly-converted evangelist.  “This is not just another search engine.  This is a whole new paradigm that completely revolutionises the way the web will work.  Look, look, I’ll show you.”

His fingers danced over the keys that were set into the expensive desk.  Behind him, on the large screen a web page appeared.  It was Google.

“What do you want, Mr Cartwright?”

“How about a Maserati, 1998?”

The search results filled the screen.

“See that?  Nearly two million hits.  If I take the year out… thirty million.  That’s ridiculous.  How can you possibly shop in a space that big?  And that’s for something quite obscure.  What do most people want?  Money?… Three quarters of a billion hits.  Happiness?...  Health?...”  His fingers danced over the keys.  “Over a billion.

“The problem with search engines, any search engine, is that it only tells you what you ask for.  If you want to find what you really want you have to ask in a special, complicated way, or plough through hundreds of worthless sites that give you what you searched for but not what you’re searching for.”  He paused for a moment, opened up a blank document and typed in ‘give you what you searched for but not what you’re looking for’.

“Sorry, but that’s a good strap line.  I might use that.  Where was I?  Oh yes.

“We’ve got some revolutionary new software.  It’s based on some of the face recognition and biometric stuff that security forces use, but we’ve enhanced it for this site.”

The web page behind him changed.  “This is still a pilot, of course.  We’re still writing the algorithms.  But it’s pretty good even so.

“Now, if you’ll be so kind, just look at that monitor to your left there.  That’s it.  See the web cam on top?  That’s what this is all about.  Everyone has a webcam now, and those that don’t will want to buy one once we launch.  The site is monitoring your face as you surf.  Now, let’s find your Maserati.  Type in ‘car’.  That’s all.”

Cartwright look quizzically at the smiling eager man opposite him, shrugged, and typed in the word ‘car’ into the site.

The screen flashed.  An image of a saloon car flashed up, which was then replaced by a VW beetle, an old Rolls, and more.  The images flickered in front of him so fast he hardly had time to register them.  They were all sports cars now, different colours, different designs.  Now the pictures were slowing down, until eventually a yellow sports car remained static on the screen.

“Oh, Mr Cartwright!  You didn’t really want a Maserati!  That’s a Ferrari.  Tell me that’s not a better-looking car.”

Cartwright pursed his lips and waggled his head in indecision.  “It’s nice enough, I guess.  Maybe I could be tempted.”

“OK, now just click the mouse, anywhere will do.”

The images changed to various words:  Shops, Facts, Pictures, Stories, and Cartwright’s eyes flicked around the screen from word to word.  Finally there appeared a list of Ferrari dealerships in the area.

“What you want, Mr Cartwright.  You just typed ‘car’, but it saw what you really wanted.  Now imagine if you were a sports car dealer.  Where in that list would you want your dealership?  How much would you pay to have it at the top?”

“How does it work?”

“The web cam is the key.  It monitors your face.  In particular your pupils and your pulse, if it can.”

“My pulse?”

“Yes.  If the picture is good enough it will see your pulse on your neck.  But we’re also keying in other body language patterns.  As you see what’s on the screen it monitors your reaction, showing you what you really want.  You see, it can see what you like by monitoring your reaction, and then it refines and feeds back until you have what you really want.  Then it shows you various categories and monitors where your eyes go, and refines those until Bingo!”

“But I wanted a Maserati.  I’m afraid I’m not quite convinced yet.”

“We’re getting something like an 80% success rate at the moment, but that’s with Beta software.  With some more research we reckon that within a couple of months we could hit over 95%.  And of course, as it gets to know you, the results improve.  Try it again.  Just type in a word to start.”

He typed in ‘film’.  The monitor flashed a bewildering array of images and words.  Eventually it rested on a review of ‘The Wizard of Oz’.

“A Judy Garland fan, Mr Cartwright?”

“It was the first film I was ever taken to the cinema to see,” he said, looking at the monitor.  “I must have been five.”

The monitor flashed again.  “What’s happening?” Cartwright asked in surprise.

“Relax.  It saw that you had got bored of the site and is monitoring your reactions to other images.  Just relax, Mr Cartwright, and look into the screen.”

The images slowed again, settling on a series of photographs of a small seaside town.

Cartwright raised his eyes in surprise.  “That’s Ramsgate!  That was where I saw it.  God, it’s been years since I’ve been back.”

The monitor threw another barrage of images out, settling on a personal blog.

“Oh my God!  Gillian!  She was my sweetheart when I was ten, up till we left Ramsgate.  Oh my God!  That’s amazing!”

The young man coughed.  “So, is your company willing to invest, Mr Cartwright?”

“What?  Oh, yes.  Yes, definitely.  I really want to be part of this venture.  I’ll get my people onto it straight away.”

“That’s excellent news, Mr Cartwright,” he said, walking around the desk to shake his hand.  “We’ll look forward to working with you.”

Shortly after the investor had left another young man entered the office.

“How long did it take to brainwash this one?”

The other winced.  “Really Clive, I wish you’d stop calling it brainwashing.  We’re only doing what we say we do.  It’s just that the subliminal messages realign their wants.  Ultimately, what we show them ends up being what they want.”