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Three reasons you're not going to see a change like this in the algo: 1) Recommendations are somewhat economic substitutes, not economic complements. Which is

Three reasons you're not going to see a change like this in the algo: 1) Recommendations are somewhat economic substitutes, not economic complements. Which is to say, most people look at the Amazon page for a given book, then look through the associated recommendations, and (generally) choose only one of the options. 2) If enough people actually bought Silent Spring after reading the Three Body problem, then the Silent Spring would already show up in the recommendations, because Amazon shows you recommendations based on what customers most similar to you also bought 3) If Amazon had shown you Silent Spring BEFORE you read the Three Body Problem, would you have even wanted to read it? Or would you have been like wtf Amazon how is this related? My bet for the average customer is the latter. Amazon can't make money by recommending you things that you won't even want until two weeks later

old_sound 9y ago
Right now Amazon is showing two kinds of recommendations: 1) "the customers that bought this also bought…". That one can show you books that are totally unrelated to the book you are buying or even to your actual interests. 2) the "Sponsored products related to this item". I don't see why they couldn't substitute one of them for "books the author of this book recommends", or something like that.
Iv 9y ago
1) I don't see what is immutable about this logic. Next to the "people who enjoyed that also enjoyed..." list there could be a "to go a bit deeper..." or "books referenced by this book or author..." 2) The problem is in "enough". People who will want to read about that book are only a niche and will never be more numerous than people who simply bought the part II and III of the Three Body Problem (it is a trilogy). The author here really points out an unaddressed problem. 3) Another argument to make a separate "book referenced by this book/author"

old_sound 9y ago

Right now Amazon is showing two kinds of recommendations: 1) "the customers that bought this also bought…". That one can show you books that are totally unrelated to the book you are buying or even to your actual interests. 2) the "Sponsored products related to this item". I don't see why they couldn't substitute one of them for "books the author of this book recommends", or something like that.

Iv 9y ago

1) I don't see what is immutable about this logic. Next to the "people who enjoyed that also enjoyed..." list there could be a "to go a bit deeper..." or "books referenced by this book or author..." 2) The problem is in "enough". People who will want to read about that book are only a niche and will never be more numerous than people who simply bought the part II and III of the Three Body Problem (it is a trilogy). The author here really points out an unaddressed problem. 3) Another argument to make a separate "book referenced by this book/author"