Word of Mouse
Chapter One
The Insider's Guide to
Collaborative Filtering
and Recommender Systems
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
-ARTHUR C. CLARKE, PROFILES OF THE FUTURE (1962)
Man is a tool-using animal....
Without tools he is nothing, with tools, he is all.
-THOMAS CARLYLE, SARTOR RESARTUS (1833-34)
A Brief History of Collaborative Filtering
Collaborative filtering is at the same time very new and very old.
At its core, collaborative filtering is any mechanism whereby
members of a community collaborate to identify what is good and what
is bad. Even in prehistoric days, our species relied upon informal
collaborative filtering. When a tribe encountered some new berry or
root, they didn't all eat it simultaneously. Some people watched to
see if the others became ill. If those who had eaten did get sick,
the others would use this strong negative recommendation by avoiding
that food (e.g., the deadly nightshade); if not, they would eat it
themselves.
All sorts of knowledge was gained through observation of our
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