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November 27, 2002
User profiling gone wild
Dan Hon has spotted a wonderful story about what happens when your TiVo decides it knows you a little too well.
Not that it's just TiVo. Amazon have some very strange ideas about what I like, and seem to be given to wild spells of enthusiasm for a particular sub-genre or product type. When it comes to science fiction novels or books about computers and the internet they've got a reasonable sample size so they do an OK job, but as soon as I added the DVDs of Yes, Minister to my wishlist they immediately added every 70s UK sitcom available on DVD to my DVD recommendations. As I've ordered very few music CDs through Amazon, their idea of what music I might like is similarly subject to wild fluctuations. After my first ever music CD from them (Danny Elfman's Music From a Darkened Theatre) they started recommending Britney Spears' current album to me. Then again, as a male in my late thirties I was already in one of Britney's major customer demographics...
Posted by John at November 27, 2002 10:35 PM
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