Reading recommendations - make it stop!

[dakini]

the "feature" of Amazon I find most amusing is the "people who bought this also bought ..." because after page 2 or 3, the most random things come up ... if the person bought 50 shades, they might also have bought plant food or a new ipad connector cable and amazon tries pushing it.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by HarleyB

I really wanted the Kobo recommendations to work. I think I am one of the few who actually wouldn't mind having recommendations - if they work.

Amazon's recommendations are excellent and I regularly find interesting new options there. I especially like how you can remove a book (perhaps you bought it for someone else - perhaps you hated it - whatever) so that it no longer influences the recommendations. Once I tell Amazon that I have already read a book it is NEVER recommended to me again.
I don't ususally praise Amazon but they have done this right!

Sadly Kobo's system can't even remember the books I have told it I already own. The first time I saw the recommendations I thought GREAT - they know what I like! At least 75% of the books were already in my library. I thought it wasn't bad as a starting list of recommendations but I didn't realise that these were the only recommendations I would ever get. After telling them multiple times that I have already read most of these books they keep shoving the same stuff at me.

Seriously what is the point? They have been recommending the same 20 or so books all year - I already own them - I've clicked the already read button hoping to get something new - but no - it's the same old books...

For me a complete waste of a potentially helpful feature.

I agree.

[filmo]

I have always lived by if it is worth doing it is worth your best effort to get great results. This way you get job satisfaction beyond wages. Unfortunately Kobos efforts often fall short. Recommend books is one example another is awards. I not have seen anything posted about awards here for months. Myself I am good at ignoring most of these distractions from reading.

[echwel]

Originally Posted by filmo

I not have seen anything posted about awards here for months. Myself I am good at ignoring most of these distractions from reading.

I got even better at ignoring these mentioned distractions after I switched off the device memorating them to me

[nogle]

I have wondered about how Kobo has come up with some of their recommendations - and I suspect it is based on erroneous tags/descriptions provided by publishers.

But, in filtering the recommendations, I have found books I am interested in and wouldn't have found otherwise. I have found that:
About 30% are books that I am not interested in and can't understand why Kobo is making the recommendation,
About 40% are recommendations that I can understand but am not interested in (read the biography of one rock star and you end up having all of them recommended), and
About 30% are good recommendations of which about 25% (7.5% of total) are books I would not have seen otherwise.

Because of the books I would not have otherwise noticed, I am happy enough with the recommendations.

One thing that I do notice is that the recommendation engine appears to consider downloaded previews. So, if you download a preview, but don't like it, Kobo still appears to count it as something you are interested in.

Kobo, feel free to correct any of the assumptions I have made.

[ltr]

One thing that I do notice is that the recommendation engine appears to consider downloaded previews. So, if you download a preview, but don't like it, Kobo still appears to count it as something you are interested in.

I also feel it gives weight to any books you simply click on to find out what they're about. If I see a book that I think might be interesting by its title, only to find that it's a romance novel (or whatever), then I'm plagued by romance novels for months to come. It makes me fear even looking at books anymore.

Then there are the continual recommendations of books I have in my library. How simple it would be to correct that problem by looking in my library. Just exclude those books - I've already bought them.

And when I click on "Already read this book", then exclude it. Don't keep recommending it.

I'm not a programmer by trade, but I write lots of programs. I could fix their problem in a heartbeat.

Are they purposely trying to annoy everyone?

ltr

[rjcroy]

Constant recommendations are annoying!

[treadlightly]

I don't find Kobo's recommendations annoying - they are limited to one or two emails per week and at the top of the page when I log in to their website. Almost all of the recommendations they have given me are in or around the genres that I purchase the most and have been spot on. Amazon, on the other hand, routinely recommends Fifty Shades of Grey and kids books when I have only ever purchased them as gifts.

[vice-versa]

recommandations doesn't bother me too much, but I was amazed some days ago, looking for one historical fiction book in particular (the dragon scroll by I J Parker), to have in the list of "you could want to read too" (or something like that) that "famous" fifty shade series To be honest, I didn't read it nor did I know what it was about till some days ago when I read about it there : it does not seem to me to be really historical (though I admit it must be fiction )