Value of recommendation engines
MIT technology review, which apparently has been published since 1899 according to the cover, in May 2008 published an article by Michael Schrage, “Recommendation Nation”. The last few paragraphs:
For all my excitement about the future of recommendation services, I can’t help feeling the way I felt about search in 2001. Existing recommendation engines have a lot of value, but they’re still primitive. Distinctions between browsing and comparison (that is, between looking at products and choosing between them) are poorly understood. We’ve yet to see how user-generated tags make product and service descriptions more precise and useful. The more specific, explicit, and time-sensitive the tag, the better the potential recommendations will be.
Smart people all over the world are working on these problems. Billions of dollars are at stake. Netflix is offering a million dollars to anyone who can improve the efficacy of its (exceptionally successful) recommendation engine. That’s a small price to pay for a company whose future depends on its ability to compete with Blockbuster and the digital video delivery companies of the future. It is an interesting and important problem, because it’s not only individuals who watch the movies, but couples, families, and friends. Perhaps the winning algorithm will be optimized for the preferences of groups.
When I get good recommendations, I spend my time and money differently. Even better recommendations will dramatically increase the value of that time and money. That’s a digital future I crave and expect. I hope Internet innovators take my recommendations as seriously as I take theirs.
Not that we need the validation. The point is I fully agree that better recommendations are needed especially as we are increasingly overwhelmed by mounds of content.