[QUOTE=jabiru]
Amazon thinks that because I’ve bought a book by Peter Robinson, who writes crime fiction, I might be interested in Hard Labour: The Sociology of Parenthood. I have no idea how they made that particular connection.
[/QUOTE]
Amazon uses collaborative filtering, so people who bought the first book also bought the second one. There’s no rhyme or reason, it’s simple statistics.
[QUOTE=WilhelmGefallen]
psst You know you can remove items from your browsing and purchasing history so that it doesn’t recommend items based on them any more, right?
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[/QUOTE]
Yes, I know. What I am saying is that it seems like an obvious (to me, anyway) way to improve their recomendation system. Unlike adults, kids preferences change fairly predictably over the years. The 7 year old boy who likes Captain Underpants books is likely to be a prime candidate for a Harry Potter book in 5 years. Why not suggest that to him then?