1. Google Search.
2. Facebook’s News Feed.
3. OKCupid Date Matching.
4. NSA Data Collection, Interpretation, and Encryption.
5. “You May Also Enjoy…”
6. Google AdWords.
7. High Frequency Stock Trading.
8. MP3 Compression.
9. IBM’s CRUSH (Criminal Reduction Utilizing Statistical History)
10. Auto-Tune
The importance of algorithms in our lives today cannot be overstated. They are used virtually everywhere, from financial institutions to dating sites. But some algorithms shape and control our world more than others — and these ten are the most significant.
Just a quick refresher before we get started. Though there’s no formal definition, computer scientists describe algorithms as a set of rules that define a sequence of operations. They’re a series of instructions that tell a computer how it’s supposed to solve a problem or achieve a certain goal. A good way to think of algorithms is by visualizing a flowchart.