Preference Engines Side-Effects in Online Retail

jasonla writes "The Los Angeles Times ran a Column One article about the impact preference engines have on consumer buying habits. From the article: 'In the physical world, I bump into all kinds of people by chance. But online, if recommenders were perfect, I can have the option of talking to only people who are just like me. There's a danger that if we don't have some level of shared interaction, it can be destructive to our social cohesion.'"

Comments

And Geffen Looks to Buy the LA Times...

[Baldrson]

Geffen is looking to buy the LA Times which would explain why it is that the LA Times is running a story that totally ignores the degree to which mass media companies already "tell you what you like" and furthermore, tell you that you like what they like.

Talk about narrow tastes!