Joho the Blog
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November 29, 2006
RageBoy points out in an email that Amazon recently recommended that he buy a book titled Cataloging and Classification. When RB clicked the link that explains how they came up with that recommendation, he was told:
RB thinks this is yet more evidence that Amazon's recommendation engine is deteriorating. But, RB would like that book on library classification, so maybe it's evidence that some correlations are non-obvious but useful nonetheless. Or possibly it's just evidence that RageBoy is outside the hump of normality. [Tags: everything_is_miscellaneous taxonomy rageboy christopher_locke amazon libraries marketing ] Posted
by D. Weinberger at November 29, 2006 05:19 PM
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Comments
Oddly, there is a connection there, but it seems a little too obscure for the Amazon engine.
Posted by: jessamyn | November 29, 2006 06:32 PM
Recommendation engines are terribly complex, sifting through large bodies of data for tiny clues. Users always seem to want to know why an item was recommended, but it's far too complex to summarize. Tell them as many times as you like, but they'll insist on an answer. So what can you do but point to something and say..."this one right here."
Posted by: Brian | November 30, 2006 01:43 AM
Digging a little deeper, it appears that Amazon shoppers who liked those two books also liked this blog entry
Posted by: Aldon Hynes | November 30, 2006 02:19 AM