

The Art, Science and Business of Recommendation Engines - steffon
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/recommendation_engines.php
Is this really the best that's out there?
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Tichy
I think it is interesting that some people cherish the Amazon recommendations
above everything, whereas others are fundamentally unhappy with it.
Unfortunately I belong in the later category. Sure, sometimes Amazon comes up
with something interesting to me, but in general it does not. I wonder if I am
just too weird for a recommender system to grasp, or if it hints at the system
still being very imperfect.

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steffon
I agree: I rarely find that suggestions based off of anonymous, aggregrate
consumer "social" data helps "pick" worthwhile suggestions for me. If a
category of shopping is completely new to me, then what everyone else knows
can make me more aware of the commonplace options (which is helpful). But if I
know anything about the category of items I am looking at, I really don't care
what the anonymous masses already know because I know it already too or it's a
very "obvious" connection.

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karzeem
Great article. Generalized personalization is going to be an increasingly big
deal. In a few years, I think it'll be expected that almost any site you visit
already knows who you are and what you're like.

