I have to admit that I’ve bought several Leatherman Multitools over the years. One for me, and the others as gifts. I think that they make wonderful graduation gifts. They say “you’re big enough to play with knives now” and they are very useful.
I bought the Solar Home Living Source book from Amazon. It’s all about independent living and getting off the grid.
So, since I have an interest in cars (their words not mine) they recommended car detailing products.
Because there is a correlation in purchase history between those two items. Most likely (I don’t know their exact algorithm) it rarely looks at taxonomy, there are too many items in their catalog. They don’t need to make sense, they just need to be statistically significant.
Hey, I am with you. The system can crank out some stupid things, such as recommending the paperback release of Zoe’s Tale for me. That would be a great recommendation, except that I already have the hardcover; guess where I purchased it. I am just saying you can work to influence it and get some of the more bizzaro stuff of there.
I agree, I wish there was a way to opt out of certain types of recommendations, but not others. It seems to be an all or nothing thing.
You can log in and pull down the menu that says “{Your name’s} Amazon.com” at the top, and pick “Improve your Recommendations.” Then you can at least tell it not to use certain items for recommendations. This may work as a direct link: Amazon Sign-In
That is freaking awesome. I felt guilty enjoying G-G, because I didn’t know if it had Davis’ blessing or not. Now I can enjoy it guilt-free!
I currently have an Amazon recommendation for The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin, based on my rating of Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years by Michael Palin.
What relationship could exist between Monty Python or Michael Palin and the Supreme Court is beyond me.
Just to reiterate - the relationship is that people who bought one book bought the other one. That’s all the system really looks at. It doesn’t look at the content of the books (in most cases).
I’ve thought for a while now, that Amazon would do well to approach Pandora.com and buy a copy of their music algorithem, to be used to recommend new music.
Pandora does it right. Amazon just sucks at it.
OK, we get it. We’re still going to make fun of it. Like today when they suggested I needed US magazine because I purchased slippers.
And the good lord only knows how many times I have to mark not interested on Jim Cramer’s recent book…
Pandora’s algorithm won’t generalize outside of music unless somebody’s willing to spend a lot of money. (And I’m not at all impressed with the recommendations it’s given me in the past.)
Rachael Ray Brick Garbage Bowl
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