Hadoop startup Mortar Data is offering to build recommendation systems for 10 companies, with help from Hilary Mason, Drew Conway and Max Shron. It’s part of a bigger plan to democratize the science behind online recommendations. Read more »
New research suggests that a phenomenon called biased assimilation makes people view new, inconclusive evidence in ways that support existing biases, leading to increased polarization on topics such as politics or even what we read online. Read more »
In order to recommend new events for its members, online event-management company Eventbrite must build what it calls “implicit social graphs.” It’s just one of many approaches to figuring out what content users want to see. Read more »
Would Xfinity’s iPad app ever tell you if a show is available on Netflix? Jeremy Toeman doesn’t think so, which is why his company built a TV guide app that tries to recommend content from all sources – a kind of Switzerland of TV guides. Read more »
A newly-launched startup called Foundd is taking the algorithmic approach, while its Berlin neighbour Tweek.tv is going for the social angle. But why has no winner emerged in this space already? Read more »
