3 ms·

Recommendation systems are a really interesting topic to study/engineer on. I think there's a lot of unexplored/undiscovered techniques still remaining.

taeric 10y ago
Oddly... I have grown rather weary of them. I have yet to get a surprise recommendation that I cared for. At best, I have seen people surprised that some good recommendations came out of a system. Which usually just leads to curation systems being key. And they work well, until they are gamed. And they will be gamed.
- erichocean 10y ago
  > Oddly... I have grown rather weary of them. That's what makes the problem so interesting! Most recommendation systems are terrible, and those that aren't, are good only for the first 1-2 recommendations. And then there's Google Search, which so thoroughly demolished existing search result recommendation systems (remember Altavista?) that they now own the market and are one of the most valuable companies in history. When you finally solve a recommendation system problem in a way that actually works, it's a huge freaking deal!
- brianberns 10y ago
  I felt the same way until I tried Spotify's Discover Weekly recommendation system. I don't know what they're doing, but I've found many songs I really enjoy that way.
  - iverjo 10y ago
    Spotify's Discover Weekly is based on collaborative filtering. Some of the techniques they use are described in these slides: http://www.slideshare.net/MrChrisJohnson/collaborative-filtering-with-spark/6 http://www.slideshare.net/MrChrisJohnson/collaborative-filte...
    - erichocean 10y ago
      That's a major technique in one of the social platforms I'm working on, too. Glad to see it working so well at scale!
- bfuller 10y ago
  I live with my elderly father. For some reason Facebook and Amazon think I am a geriatric.
  - dominotw 10y ago
    >For some reason Facebook and Amazon think I am a geriatric. Heh. Me too. I suffer from joint/ligament issues and buy supplements for those.Now, Amazon thinks I am a geriatric and recommends me 'helping hand' sticks and incontinence products :\ Reminds me o this tweet https://twitter.com/kibblesmith/status/724817086309142529 https://twitter.com/kibblesmith/status/724817086309142529 Amazon is a $250 billion dollar company that reacts to you buying a vacuum by going THIS GUY LOVES BUYING VACUUMS HERE ARE SOME MORE VACUUMS
placeybordeaux 10y ago
I am currently looking for a decent comprehensive study on them. So far I have found this slide deck from netflix to be pretty good [1]. Do you have any suggestions? [1] http://www.slideshare.net/xamat/recommender-systems-machine-learning-summer-school-2014-cmu http://www.slideshare.net/xamat/recommender-systems-machine-...

taeric 10y ago

Oddly... I have grown rather weary of them. I have yet to get a surprise recommendation that I cared for. At best, I have seen people surprised that some good recommendations came out of a system. Which usually just leads to curation systems being key. And they work well, until they are gamed. And they will be gamed.

erichocean 10y ago
> Oddly... I have grown rather weary of them. That's what makes the problem so interesting! Most recommendation systems are terrible, and those that aren't, are good only for the first 1-2 recommendations. And then there's Google Search, which so thoroughly demolished existing search result recommendation systems (remember Altavista?) that they now own the market and are one of the most valuable companies in history. When you finally solve a recommendation system problem in a way that actually works, it's a huge freaking deal!
brianberns 10y ago
I felt the same way until I tried Spotify's Discover Weekly recommendation system. I don't know what they're doing, but I've found many songs I really enjoy that way.
- iverjo 10y ago
  Spotify's Discover Weekly is based on collaborative filtering. Some of the techniques they use are described in these slides: http://www.slideshare.net/MrChrisJohnson/collaborative-filtering-with-spark/6 http://www.slideshare.net/MrChrisJohnson/collaborative-filte...
  - erichocean 10y ago
    That's a major technique in one of the social platforms I'm working on, too. Glad to see it working so well at scale!
bfuller 10y ago
I live with my elderly father. For some reason Facebook and Amazon think I am a geriatric.
- dominotw 10y ago
  >For some reason Facebook and Amazon think I am a geriatric. Heh. Me too. I suffer from joint/ligament issues and buy supplements for those.Now, Amazon thinks I am a geriatric and recommends me 'helping hand' sticks and incontinence products :\ Reminds me o this tweet https://twitter.com/kibblesmith/status/724817086309142529 https://twitter.com/kibblesmith/status/724817086309142529 Amazon is a $250 billion dollar company that reacts to you buying a vacuum by going THIS GUY LOVES BUYING VACUUMS HERE ARE SOME MORE VACUUMS

placeybordeaux 10y ago

I am currently looking for a decent comprehensive study on them. So far I have found this slide deck from netflix to be pretty good [1]. Do you have any suggestions? [1] http://www.slideshare.net/xamat/recommender-systems-machine-learning-summer-school-2014-cmu http://www.slideshare.net/xamat/recommender-systems-machine-...