Quote:
Originally Posted by BenG
Basically, it's the same principle as Amazon's recommendations.
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Possibly. I've no idea. I don't utilize Amazon's recommendations.
Where literature map is helpful to me is this scenario:
1) I put in a favorite author
2) It brings up an author "cloud" with several authors that I also really like in close proximity to my search author. Yay! The algorithm is "working" obviously.
3) There's an unknown author (unknown to
me) that is also in close proximity to my search author. After looking them up and verifying that their works indeed sound interesting to me, I'm very likely to try their work.
Thus I'm able to discover new authors I might like without having to limit my search to authors who write like (or write in the same genre as) author X.
I have very eclectic tastes. I don't want recommendations based on author/genre similarities. That would be way too limiting. Give me a fuzzy recommendation algorithm any day. I can pare the results down easily myself.
When I go to the bookstore, everything is so ... alphabetical, linear, and well ... boring. I don't want to BE the algorithm (randomly bouncing from aisle to section to shelf--staring at spines (unless the bookstore wants me to see a particular book's face)). I want to USE the algorithm to bring an eclectic assortment of candidates to
me.