I did some work for the Recommendation team (the oversized checks were still arrayed along the wall when I was there.) The later winning entries were too compu

I did some work for the Recommendation team (the oversized checks were still arrayed along the wall when I was there.) The later winning entries were too compute-intensive to implement, or not enough of an advantage over the existing engine to justify more compute. So I would say it was a real competition, not just PR, even though a particular solution wasn't used. (Factoid: It was the the last team to start the migration to Cassandra.)