So what do Amazon think I'd like?

[zotz]

Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

It's the sort of thing that would leave me insanely angry, except of course that they're right. For some reason they're also recommending me shedloads of Curve, despite the fact that I've never bought either from them. How do they know?

And while we're at it, they seem certain that I'd like a band (Scandiwegian, perhaps?) called Kent. Anyone heard anything by them?

Comments

[aca.livejournal.com]

They do a lot of recs based on the 'what others who bought this bought' link, which seems to fit pretty well in a lot of cases. Crossref this with your purchases and you can get quite an accurate profile without too much data on each individual.

Shiny.

[zotz]

I know this in principle, but the music I've bought off Amazon has mainly been US Indie - well, in fact it's mainly been the Magnetic Fields and a couple of their sideprojects. How do they get from there to Snuff?

[simont]

Amazon have been known to make some fairly entertaining inferences before...

[bootpunk.livejournal.com]

So, Amazon thought that you ken'd Kent?

[zotz]

Ba-bum, tch!

[lilitufire.livejournal.com]

I might be hallucinating this, but I think http://www.musicplasma.com/ might be the Amazon link engine made flesh, or something. Which I guess might answer your question?

[zotz]

No obvious links to snuff, although an interesting site.

[kixie.livejournal.com]

Amazon worry me; I bought a Queen Adreena cd off of them and my 'recommendations' page changed to include Prozac Nation.

They've never recommended me anything I'd like. I bought an Alessandro Barrico book from them because it was recommended after I bought a Patrick Suskind book and it was awful.

[zotz]

my 'recommendations' page changed to include Prozac Nation.

Well, maybe they reckoned you were a stressed teenager? Certainly there were plenty of very young women further down the front row when we saw QA recently. It wouldn't surprise me at all if QA buyers were Wurtzel fans also.

[shaunotd.livejournal.com]

jonaread brought some 'Kent' back from Sweden a while back. Didn't really do much for me - I rememeber thinking they were a bit bland, but don't actually remember the music at all.

[zotz]

Ah well, I'll probably not bother chasing them up, then. Cheers.

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

They're currently trying to tell me I'd really like some Def Leppard. I don't bloody think so!

It's not actually childeric's fault though, I ordered some CDs for ladymoonray's birthday, so I think that's where they're getting it from.

I don't understand why they add stuff you've bought from someone else's wishlist to your preferences, you'd think they could filter that out.

[zotz]

Maybe they're trying to tell you (in their own inimitable way) that they've worked out what your friends are like too?

[dmh.livejournal.com]

They've only recently stopped recommending me the Satanic Bible and other similiar works, which I think was brought on by the purchase of a Throbbing Gristle biography. Amazon can be amusing at times...

[scathe.livejournal.com]

Kent - very pleasant, but yes, like he said, a trifle on the bland side.