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A comment on Two Decades of Recommender Systems at Amazon.com. Parent comment

Re:Two Decades of Recommender Systems at Amazon.com by saurik on Wednesday July 05, 2017 @08:02PM (#14707197)
But there are so many other things that make more sense: just imagine what a salesman would try to do, and he answer is not "another vacuum". They could try to get me to buy bags to go with the vacuum. They might think I am into cleaning right now and try to sell me a feather duster. It just makes so little sense that their reaction to "bought a thing" is to run ads showing me "same thing you just bought" instead of "things that go well with the thing you just bought"... particularly as they know what those things are as before you leave Amazon's website they are all over "people who bought this tend to buy this also". When I buy a camera they should try to sell me a lens cap. When I buy exercise equipment they should try to sell me weights or towels or mats. When I buy a DVD player they should try to sell me DVDs. Yet for the next two weeks they insist on spending as money showing me the thing I just bought as if I want to buy it again: what the hell? :/
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Re:Two Decades of Recommender Systems at Amazon.com by azhenley on Wednesday July 05, 2017 @08:30PM (#14707308)
Definitely! They should be using Apriori or some other association rule learning algorithm for this.

They already use these techniques to suggest things before you make the purchase, but it would be great to extend it over a long period of time, like you said. A few months later they suggest carpet cleaner or bags for your vacuum.

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Re:Two Decades of Recommender Systems at Amazon.com by draugadrotten on Thursday July 06, 2017 @02:51AM (#14708614)
Heck, The small online shop where I bought my robot lawnmower does this. Last year I bought replacement knifes for the robot. This year they sent me a mail at the same time, asking if I wanted to buy another pair of replacement knifes, or perhaps other accessories or a new battery. And yes, I wanted another set of knifes - click, done.
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Re:Two Decades of Recommender Systems at Amazon.com by DonaldFisk on Wednesday July 05, 2017 @09:56PM (#14707649)
Indeed, but that would require common sense. That's a lot of work, as Doug Lenat will readily confirm.
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