http://seenthis.loomia.com/
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=10066213622
Here we have a new facebook application that allows you to "take your social network with you".
Loomia has just released a new application - SeenThis? - that allows users on media sites (Wall Street Journal, NBC), with just a click, send their facebook network their latest recommendation. This recommendation gets combined with the other recommendations of your friends / groups / networks and presented to them while on facebook.
Loomia gets all excited about the flip side of the application. While on a partner site, say, the Wall Street Journal, you get to see what your facebook contacts think about the current articles.
It seems that you are never alone with SeenThis? and facebook.
I don't much like this whole idea. I am not interested in sharing this kind of information. I am also not interested in seeing what all of my buddies are reading. And, just when I thought I was all alone with this kind of antisocial networking bias, I looked at the second link that shows that not very many people are using this service. Somehow this makes me feel better about life on our planet.
14 February 2008
Weekly Recomender Log
Last week I reported that I had moved to Charleston, SC. I am sad to report that Google doesn't believe me. I logged on to my Google account and noted that the logo was sporting a Valentine's Day theme. So, I thought that I would do some shopping. I searched and clicked away on all sorts of romantic ads.
Then I noticed that I was getting some ads for romantic getaways in Charlotte & Asheville - something from my past must be at play.
I found a couple of additional places in Google to plug in my zip. And after a few more shopping sessions, I no longer was invited to North Carolina locations. Apparently, South Carolina doesn't have have any romantic spots - at least not ones that need to advertise.
I found something that I hadn't seen before on Google - a gadget from Google called "Interesting Things For You". It seems that they can keep an eye on my activities and find things that I would find, well, "interesting". All of this must take some time because the tool currently reports:
There aren't enough searches for interesting items yet. Check back after searching for a couple days and be sure you're signed in when you search.
I will try harder.
Then I noticed that I was getting some ads for romantic getaways in Charlotte & Asheville - something from my past must be at play.
I found a couple of additional places in Google to plug in my zip. And after a few more shopping sessions, I no longer was invited to North Carolina locations. Apparently, South Carolina doesn't have have any romantic spots - at least not ones that need to advertise.
I found something that I hadn't seen before on Google - a gadget from Google called "Interesting Things For You". It seems that they can keep an eye on my activities and find things that I would find, well, "interesting". All of this must take some time because the tool currently reports:
There aren't enough searches for interesting items yet. Check back after searching for a couple days and be sure you're signed in when you search.
I will try harder.
07 February 2008
Weekly Recomender Log
This week I moved to Charleston, SC - at least my Google persona is in Charleston! I searched the real estate market and settled into the James Island neighborhood. My new zip code is 29412. I am beginning to feel right at home.
This is a very strange process for me. Over the last several years, I have been concerned about privacy and have only given out demographic data if I had a very good reason. Now I am clicking like mad!
Another strange notion for me is all of the ads I am seeing. I tend to bock ads. But not now, everybody in Charleston want to sell be something. I must be important, everybody want to get to know me.
I noticed that when I search on "James Island, SC" that I got a lot of adds from Realtors that were promoting them selfs as James Island but when I click, I was taken to their generic Charleston site where I was invited to search again for James Island.
This is a very strange process for me. Over the last several years, I have been concerned about privacy and have only given out demographic data if I had a very good reason. Now I am clicking like mad!
Another strange notion for me is all of the ads I am seeing. I tend to bock ads. But not now, everybody in Charleston want to sell be something. I must be important, everybody want to get to know me.
I noticed that when I search on "James Island, SC" that I got a lot of adds from Realtors that were promoting them selfs as James Island but when I click, I was taken to their generic Charleston site where I was invited to search again for James Island.
The BellKor solution to the Netflix Prize
http://www.netflixprize.com/assets/ProgressPrize2007_KorBell.pdf
Here's the tell all story of how the leaders in the NetFlix Prize did it - A step by step guide to all the 107 steps to glory. Glory in this context is defined as a RMSE score of 0.8712.
I don't begin to understand more than one underlying point of this document. And, that point is that none of their individual optimizations worked near as well as a blending of the methods.
These people don't mind telling you how they do their work. A background document can be found at:
ftp://ftp.computer.org/press/outgoing/proceedings/icdm07/Data/3018a043.pdf
Here's the tell all story of how the leaders in the NetFlix Prize did it - A step by step guide to all the 107 steps to glory. Glory in this context is defined as a RMSE score of 0.8712.
I don't begin to understand more than one underlying point of this document. And, that point is that none of their individual optimizations worked near as well as a blending of the methods.
These people don't mind telling you how they do their work. A background document can be found at:
ftp://ftp.computer.org/press/outgoing/proceedings/icdm07/Data/3018a043.pdf
31 January 2008
It's Hard to Hide From Your 'Friends'
Here's the link - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120164900173426771.html
This article from the 30-Jan-08 Wall Street Journal, relates directly to last week's discussion about Double Click and the unintended use of one's Internet activity for unintended use.
The article starts by giving three examples of questionable sharing of Internet activities by Facebook, Google, and Sears.
Facebook has a system called Beacon that likes to tell your "Friends" what you have purchased at sites like Overstock.com - so everybody on your 'friends' list automatically know about your new, little black dress.
Google Reader can automatically let your 'friends' know about what you are reading. But, it also has a curious feature where Google determines that you have should be 'friends' with other people based on your Google Talk address book. So even if you don't know them, they are still friends and should also know about your reading list.
And, perhaps the craziest of all, Sears offered a purchase tracking service at ManageMyHome.com that, given a name, phone number, and address would report on purchases at Sears. The company has dropped the service but claimed that it was only providing "easy access to useful information". Indeed.
This rush to personalize our ever experience online, once again is banging into privacy issues.
This article from the 30-Jan-08 Wall Street Journal, relates directly to last week's discussion about Double Click and the unintended use of one's Internet activity for unintended use.
The article starts by giving three examples of questionable sharing of Internet activities by Facebook, Google, and Sears.
Facebook has a system called Beacon that likes to tell your "Friends" what you have purchased at sites like Overstock.com - so everybody on your 'friends' list automatically know about your new, little black dress.
Google Reader can automatically let your 'friends' know about what you are reading. But, it also has a curious feature where Google determines that you have should be 'friends' with other people based on your Google Talk address book. So even if you don't know them, they are still friends and should also know about your reading list.
And, perhaps the craziest of all, Sears offered a purchase tracking service at ManageMyHome.com that, given a name, phone number, and address would report on purchases at Sears. The company has dropped the service but claimed that it was only providing "easy access to useful information". Indeed.
This rush to personalize our ever experience online, once again is banging into privacy issues.
15 January 2008
Recommender Watch
For this project, I intend on monitoring everybody's favorite searcher - Google.
If I knew more about recommender sites, I might have branched out a bit. But still, I have tried to have tried to have some fun with this even if it is a familiar site. I have setup a new computer and a brand new user ID in order to not let all of my years of history run over the engine. And, the characteristics of this user ID are quite different than my "real" ID.
As we go forward, I should be able to quickly try things on both machines and check for any variations.
If I knew more about recommender sites, I might have branched out a bit. But still, I have tried to have tried to have some fun with this even if it is a familiar site. I have setup a new computer and a brand new user ID in order to not let all of my years of history run over the engine. And, the characteristics of this user ID are quite different than my "real" ID.
As we go forward, I should be able to quickly try things on both machines and check for any variations.
Week 1 Resource
'Reinforcing the Blockbuster Nature of Media': The Impact of Online Recommenders
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1818Underlying research paper:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=955984
This week's news / resource is an article from the Warton Business School that reviews and comments on some recent research by members of the Warton staff.
The article, and supporting research, suggests that online retailers need to be careful when implementing a recommender system so that they don't continually recommend a short list of items that are supposed to be part of "the Long Tail" of their inventory. Instead of milking more profits from the "Tail" they will simple create more "Blockbuster" sales.
One little tangent in the article was of particular interest to me. Apparently, the whole recommender thing at Amazon was a real after thought. The developer of the original feature was contacted and claims that he was told to stop development of the feature because it would get in the way of a speedy checkout.
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