Author Archive
Posted on December 7, 2008 - by amarkos
A Success Story
It used to be that if you wanted to buy a book, rent a movie or shop for some music, you had to rely on flesh-and-blood judgment — yours, or that of someone you trusted. You’d go to your local store and look for new stuff, or you might just wander the aisles in what librarians call a stack search, to see if anything jumped out at you. You might check out newspaper reviews or consult your friends; if you were lucky, your local video store employed one of those young cinéastes who could size you up in a glance and suggest something suitable.
Personalized recommendations are a “key differentiating factor” for my company.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO
I think that once you get beyond 1,000 choices, a recommendation system becomes critical. People have limited cognitive time they want to spend on picking a movie.
Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO
Online recommenders reinforce the blockbuster nature of media.
We had this realization that if we gathered together a really large group of people, like thousands or millions, they could help one another find things, because you can find patterns in what they like. It’s not necessarily the one, single smart critic that is going to find something for you, like, ‘Go see this movie, go listen to this band!
Pattie Maes, M.I.T.