# Amazon recommendations that make no freaking sense **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 24, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652 "2006-11-24T16:14:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/1 "2006-11-24T16:14:57Z")
I’m bored and reading my Amazon recommendations. They recommend _Dawn of the Dead_ – a quintessential example of a movie that I have never seen and have absolutely zero interest in ever seeing. Why did they recommend it? Because I bought _Bride and Prejudice_. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/2 "2006-11-24T16:17:30Z")
IIUC, the recommendations are based off of what other customers bought when they purchased that item. Considering that that book is probably one assigned to highschool and college students, and that being a demographic which likes cheesy horror flicks, it makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/3 "2006-11-24T16:28:07Z")
Not the book – the Bollywood-style movie. ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/4 "2006-11-24T16:44:17Z")
It is my firm belief that they base their “recommendations” not on my personal preferences, but on _their_ personal preferences – namely, what they want to sell to me that day. So a lot of times I’ll see things that are on their Top 100 as recommendations. I also dislike their “recommendations” because I do a fair amount of shopping for gifts on amazon, and so when they recommend me things based on the stuff I bought for my brother’s baby, it really isn’t stuff I need. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/5 "2006-11-24T16:50:57Z")
[QUOTE=Campion] I also dislike their “recommendations” because I do a fair amount of shopping for gifts on amazon, and so when they recommend me things based on the stuff I bought for my brother’s baby, it really isn’t stuff I need. [/QUOTE] Easy enough to fix. Go to the “Improve Your Recommendations” screen and uncheck the boxes next to the kids’ items. That’s what I do whenever I buy items for my nieces and nephews as well as computer games for my hubby. I spend a lot of time with my recommendations because they’ve been very helpful for me when it comes to books. Sure, every now and again, I get recommended a “dud”, but after clicking “Not Interested” on that kind of item a few times, the software learns my preferences. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/6 "2006-11-24T20:14:05Z")
Of course Amazon are hoping to make more sales by offering recommendations. However from my experience there is a genuine attempt to match what you have already bought with what is available. I bought a lot of stuff and got some recommendations. They were a bit ‘hit + miss’. However once I went through the recommendations and ticked what I owned and what rating I gave it, the advice improved. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/7 "2006-11-24T22:47:45Z")
> [@](#): > > I also dislike their “recommendations” because I do a fair amount of shopping for gifts on amazon, and so when they recommend me things based on the stuff I bought for my brother’s baby, it really isn’t stuff I need. On the other hand, if you bought stuff for your niece/nephew before, you might be interested in doing so again. Amazon doesn’t particularly care about what kind of books you _read_; all that’s important to them is what you _buy_. And you do indeed buy kids’ books. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/8 "2006-11-24T23:06:10Z")
I’m not dissing the recommendations program, or its results in general – I’ve gotten some good stuff by following them. I’m just saying _Bride and Prejudice_ --\> _Dawn of the Dead_ strikes me as fairly bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2006, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/9 "2006-11-25T02:14:12Z")
I ordered some batteries once to go along with some electronic thing. They keep recommending me various sizes and brands of batteries. Not particularly interesting. I haven’t bothered to uncheck that, but I do uncheck the baby stuff. The baby stuff is quite intrusive. Buy one diaper genie and they have a whole life planned out for you. Other than that I have my recommendations trained really well. Adding a bunch of relevant stuff to a wish list is also a good way to train your recommendations. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2006, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/10 "2006-11-25T21:57:13Z")
My favourite absurd (or is it?) combination was when they recommended me softcore pornography–one of those “artistic nudes” books–because I bought _The Physics of Superheroes_. Maybe it was hinting something about my love life… :P. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/11 "2006-11-26T00:04:43Z")
I got a [screenshot](http://www.zombieninjapiratemonkeys.com/images/amazonelephant.JPG) of my favorite Amazon “people who bought X also bought Y”. For those who prefer not to click the link, I purchased “The True History of the Elephant Man”. Amazon informed me that customers who bought that book also bought:\*\* Freaks: We Who Are Not Like Others Welcome to Your Facelift: What to Expect Before, During & After Cosmetic Surgery The Oxford History of Midieval Europe Father-Daughter Incest (With a New Afterword) Sideshow USA: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination Great Jobs for Communications Majors\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/12 "2006-11-26T03:53:33Z")
Sometimes I wish that Amazon had three little buttons instead of two. Right now they have “I own it” and “Not interested” on the recommendations. They need to have one that says “No way in HELL”, for all those Barbie products they recommend to me. “Not interested” is much too polite for anyone who dares, DARES to pimp Barbie to me. ---
**Author:** ![Arien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arien)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/13 "2006-11-26T04:05:35Z")
My friend was using the [amazon.de](http://amazon.de) site to find a German children’s book and got a recommendation for something called “Loverboys 67: Scharfe Cruiser (Broschiert)”. But she did get to practice her german by translating the summary. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/14 "2006-11-26T04:19:33Z")
I was looking at The Phantom Menace DVD recently, and they offered me Passion of the Christ as a recommendation. I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/15 "2006-11-26T04:21:23Z")
The only items I’ve purchased from Amazon have been Dora the Explorer VHS tapes. My top recommendation is for a Thelonious Monk DVD. I have no idea who this is. After that there are dozens of children’s DVD selections so they mostly got it right. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/16 "2006-11-26T06:34:36Z")
Could any of these movies have a writer/director/producer/studio in common which is triggering the recommendation? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/17 "2006-11-26T06:44:35Z")
[QUOTE=Rushgeekgirl] My top recommendation is for a Thelonious Monk DVD. I have no idea who this is. [/QUOTE] A great jazz pianist. Not quite as famous as the horn players like Parker and Coltrane, but very well known among fans of classic jazz. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/18 "2006-11-26T13:40:42Z")
Amazon uses item-based [collaborative filtering](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_filtering) to make its recommendations. Their algorithm is very aware of who bought what, but not whether any two items are similar, so its output can’t be guaranteed to make intuitive sense. That doesn’t matter as long as it boosts sales. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/19 "2006-11-26T17:52:26Z")
If they had a third button, I’d want something like “I like this, but no thanks.” It’d be for those cases when you buy, say, a Harry Potter book, and they recommend to you every other version of the book–hardcover, adult paperback, adult hardcover, boxed set, etc. I mean, I don’t want them to think I don’t like Harry Potter, and I don’t own all of those books, but I want them to stop appearing on my recommendations! ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/20 "2006-11-26T18:27:20Z")
They once recommended to me the book **A Hand in the Bush: The Fine Art of Vaginal Fisting**. That was definitely a WTF moment. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652.md?page=2)