Inside UC Berkeley's High Tech Joke Recommender

alphadogg writes "Every day is something like April Fools' Day at the University of California, Berkeley joke recommendation site, dubbed Jester. Now on Version 4.0, the site tosses visitors a handful of jokes to rate on a scale of "less funny" to "more funny." It then recommends jokes based on the user's taste (or lack thereof), dynamically making recommendations based on the user's most recent ratings. Jester's more than a joke jukebox though. Underlying it is a Berkeley-patented "collaborative filtering algorithm" dubbed Eigentaste , now on Version 5.0. The more people who use the system and rate jokes, the more data Berkeley researchers have to advance their understanding of recommendation systems, like those used by Amazon.com and other Web sites."

Comments

Stay Away from Politics

[Nom du Keyboard]

It must have real problems with political jokes. Half the people think they're real funny, while the other half don't. And that half changes by joke!

Not too bad.

[0100010001010011]

Before the slashdotting I made it through the 'training' and then through about 20 jokes, it wasn't too bad.

And don't worry, the jokes get longer it's only the initial ones that are the one or two liners.

The Funniest Jokes in the World - Study

[writerjosh]

A scientific survey in 2002 attempted to find the funniest joke in the world. Thousands of people from dozens of countries voted on thousands of jokes. Each country had a different favorite. Overall, the number one and number two funniest jokes in the world, based on votes, are:

http://www.innocentenglish.com/best-funny-jokes/funniest-jokes.html