Chapter 3. Creating suggestions and recommendations
This chapter covers:
- Finding the distance and similarity between objects
- Understanding recommendation engines based on users, items, and content
- Finding recommendations about friends, articles, and news stories
- Creating recommendations for sites similar to Netflix
In today’s world, we’re overwhelmed with choices; a plethora of options are available for nearly every aspect of our lives. We need to make choices on a daily basis, from automobiles to home theatre systems, from finding Mr. or Ms. “Perfect” to selecting attorneys or accountants, from books and newspapers to wikis and blogs, from movies to songs, and so on. In addition, we’re constantly being bombarded by information—and occasionally misinformation! Under these conditions, the ability to recommend a choice is valuable, even more so if that choice doesn’t deviate significantly from the preferences of the person who receives the recommendation.