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When Purchase Recommendations Go Bad

Posted by Zonk on from the tech-just-smart-enough-to-be-dumb dept.

nixman99 writes "An article on MSNBC describes what happens when 'View Similar Products' recommendations go bad. From the article: 'The company said it was alerted to the problem early yesterday afternoon after word began spreading among bloggers. When visitors to Walmart.com requested Planet of the Apes: The Complete TV Series on DVD, four other movies were recommended under the heading Similar Items. Those films included Martin Luther King: I Have A Dream/Assassination of MLK and Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson.'"

4 of 370 comments (clear)

  1. That's quite funny by MountainMan101 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Amazon recommended some adult entertainment to go with the Madagascar (rated U) when I ordered the other day. My other interest was nature books, so how it put two and two together no one knows.

    1. Re:That's quite funny by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Maybe they figured out that if you're an adult who reads nature books and watches Madagascar, you're never going to get laid...

  2. Re:The Eye Of The Beholder by eclectro · · Score: 5, Funny

    Were you to be a glass is half empty kind of person, clearly the system is racist.

    Or to put it another way, if the banana is half eaten.

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    Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
  3. Are bad recommendations from trolls bad? by CurbyKirby · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... or funny?

    E.g. http://www.speakeasy.org/~curby/swg/text/jellypong .gif

    I vote for funny.

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    "Extra Anus Kills Four-Legged Chick" -- Headline