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Indeed, it's the discovery problem that all of social media is trying to solve. The web it good at finding something you're looking for, not so great at findin

Indeed, it's the discovery problem that all of social media is trying to solve. The web it good at finding something you're looking for, not so great at finding stuff you would like if you knew it existed. Lots of bucks to the people that figure it out (last.fm'a acquisition is a good example of that)

mixmax 19y ago
Admittedly I haven't had much experience in this field, but it doesn't seem all that hard. What am I missing? Is it one of those "the devil is in the details" things?
- pchristensen 19y ago
  Take books for example. I read lots of books, from all different genres (computer, fiction, history, economics, business, math, etc). How do I find books to read? If I look on Amazon, it suggests books similar to books I've already read, but that doesn't help me find books in different categories. Recommendations on Hacker News will give me a well rounded set of computer and entrepreneur-related books, but what else? I hear about books in other fields when they become popular enough to get press on NPR or IT Conversations or something (like The World Without Us) but mostly it's just random things mentioned here or there. I actually use an Amazon Wishlist to keep track of books I hear mentioned, because it might be a year or two before I read it. As an example of how you can do an excellent job but miss most of the picture, try the Pandora music service. You choose a song you like and they make you a radio station full of songs with similar characteristics to the one you picked. I tried "Fade to Black" by Metallica and it played other metal and rock songs, but it had no idea I liked classical, Hawaiian, reggae, old school hip hop, or anything else. I haven't encountered any recommendation service that was both accurate and broad. The best way to get recommendations I've found is to know and interact with different kinds of people (the kind who wouldn't know each other). That helps fill in the holes.

mixmax 19y ago

Admittedly I haven't had much experience in this field, but it doesn't seem all that hard. What am I missing? Is it one of those "the devil is in the details" things?

pchristensen 19y ago
Take books for example. I read lots of books, from all different genres (computer, fiction, history, economics, business, math, etc). How do I find books to read? If I look on Amazon, it suggests books similar to books I've already read, but that doesn't help me find books in different categories. Recommendations on Hacker News will give me a well rounded set of computer and entrepreneur-related books, but what else? I hear about books in other fields when they become popular enough to get press on NPR or IT Conversations or something (like The World Without Us) but mostly it's just random things mentioned here or there. I actually use an Amazon Wishlist to keep track of books I hear mentioned, because it might be a year or two before I read it. As an example of how you can do an excellent job but miss most of the picture, try the Pandora music service. You choose a song you like and they make you a radio station full of songs with similar characteristics to the one you picked. I tried "Fade to Black" by Metallica and it played other metal and rock songs, but it had no idea I liked classical, Hawaiian, reggae, old school hip hop, or anything else. I haven't encountered any recommendation service that was both accurate and broad. The best way to get recommendations I've found is to know and interact with different kinds of people (the kind who wouldn't know each other). That helps fill in the holes.