tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7040912977243533581.post1517655551961580094..comments2024-01-22T06:03:58.804-08:00Comments on idea2product: Social networks are not the future of recommendationsDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15870449917892085470noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7040912977243533581.post-22597226840748464662010-08-27T06:37:43.370-07:002010-08-27T06:37:43.370-07:00Sounds like a paper title, "Social Networks a...Sounds like a paper title, "Social Networks as a form of Global Optimization"Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00492223320639472630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7040912977243533581.post-45523931022203843242010-08-25T19:41:27.971-07:002010-08-25T19:41:27.971-07:00Interesting, Brad! Your point about trusting your ...Interesting, Brad! Your point about trusting your friends, or friends of friends, for local dentist recommendations is a good one. But I also wonder whether this can invite unintended focus on a doctor who one friend really liked, and that friend, perhaps a bit of a maven, has spread the recommendation of that dentist to his friends, who agree and pass on the recommendation... while an even better dentist happens to not be evaluated by this set of friends. A local maximum, essentially. But, since networks of friends are probably not isolated from others, perhaps a global maximum might be identified?Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15870449917892085470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7040912977243533581.post-3599733759956835412010-08-22T06:15:01.679-07:002010-08-22T06:15:01.679-07:00Interesting post Dave, but I have to disagree with...Interesting post Dave, but I have to disagree with you on a few points. Social networks are still in their infancy, and we're just beginning to unlock their power.<br /><br />I guess it comes down to what you mean by a Social Network. A Social Network doesn't need to be Facebook (personal connections). Social networks pop up through all sorts of services, the crowdsourcing of Stack Overflow, the Hive Mind of Ask Metafilter, the blogging community of LiveJournal, the power of Digg. The New Digg recognized that there wasn't just one face to recommending popular news stories, your news is now personalized based on who you follow (tastemakers, friends, etc.), propagating out from source to populace. Foursquare allows you to see what your friends are checking out, but will also tell you whats locally trending. Social as part of these websites are not just trying to use your local social network, but are trying to build out your distant connections, weak ties, and the global network as well.<br /><br />It also depends on what kind of recommendation you're looking for. Looking for a local dentist? Sure, I value the opinion of my local friends, but I also value the opinion of those 2 degrees away (with a little less trust), and the wisdom of the crowd of the local community (but not any one individual that I don't know specifically). Looking for a book recommendation? I'm happy to leave that up to a Recommender System that's learned my preferences.<br /><br />I guess what I'm saying is that while pre-defined expert opinion is worthwhile in many instances, systems that help me discover tastemakers personalized to me as well as let me spam my group of friends who I've learned to trust will triumph in most instances over a straight global search a la Google. This is why Google is nervous about the social space and trying to make inroads.<br /><br />By the way, Facebook does have some pretty simple search functionality. Just go a type something in the upper search box and click the little search link. You can restrict your results to People, Pages, Groups, Apps, Events, Web Results, your friend's posts, everybody's posts, and filter down by post type (links, wall updates, notes, videos, photos) and geographic area.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00492223320639472630noreply@blogger.com