Like this? You'll hate that

For consumers, Web recommendation system can be an annoying privacy invasion or a help in narrowing choices.
The New York Times

The story "Like this? You'll hate that" published January 23, 2006 at 5:57 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[Don_Dodge]

Recommendation engines will generate billions in revenue

There are millions of choices on the web. Search engines narrow the choices down to thousands. Does that help? Recommendation engines attempt to narrow the choices down to a handful based on your previous choices, and the choices of people deemed to be like you.

Search engines and recommendation engines also utilize opinion leaders and authority figures to rank results. Inside their ranking algorithms they give extra weight to certain sources, and penalize other sources known for spam. I worked at AltaVista for several years and was one of the few people who had access to the ranking algorithm. You might be surprised at the elements of ranking and the weights given to each. It is part rocket science and part intuition. In essence Google gives preference to "authority" figures too through their PageRank system. Pages that have lots of inbound links are thought be be authoritative, and are given more weight than pages with few links.

I wrote a blog today on this subject. read the whole story at http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2006/01/recommendation_.html

[Len Bullard]

Ampifying Choice

It amplifies tradition and habit, thus making the past stronger than the future.

Those that have will get.