

How Much of Your Copy Is Totally Irrelevant? A Case for Web Personalization - shanellem
http://copyhackers.com/2013/08/web-personalization/

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lutusp
Shockingly, the article doesn't even mention A/B testing as a way to find out
what a site's visitors prefer. In my opinion, an untested strategy is little
more than guesswork.

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heatheranne
A/B testing is still solid - my thoughts are that A/B testing is assumed. This
article appears to push people to consider beyond that: new things.

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lutusp
The success of evolution by natural selection tells us that one can optimize
one's response to an environment whose properties aren't understood, by simply
trying everything and noticing what works, what prevails. Genetic programming
is the computer-science version of natural selection. And A/B testing is a
simple version of genetic programming.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_programming](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_programming)

> This article appears to push people to consider beyond that: new things.

Yes, but the issue isn't new things, it's _which_ new things. For that, you
need testing. If people were either rational or predictable, this argument
would fall apart. But they aren't.

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shanellem
Honestly, I think it's a given that web personalization is deeply rooted in
A/B testing. But instead of testing for what's best for the aggregate, you're
testing for what's best for each individual.

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lutusp
That's interesting, but I suspect most people want to maximize visits, in
which case they're after the aggregate. I'm not saying I agree with the
sentiment, but I think it's true.

