Comments on: “Readers Advisory” on Hulu http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2010/09/09/readers-advisory-on-hulu/ or, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Fear and Loathing at a Public Library Reference Desk Mon, 20 May 2013 23:17:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Brian Herzog http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2010/09/09/readers-advisory-on-hulu/#comment-1800 Brian Herzog Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:06:11 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=1133#comment-1800 @Andromeda: yes, I read it the first way, but your way is equally-plausible. I’m just overly-sensitive in general, so anything that came after the “Brian” I was predisposed to find fault with. But I am curious how they (and anyone) calculate recommendations. I get the tag-based LTfL model, and Amazon’s “people who bought this also bought” thing, but videos seem different. However, it could just all be based on activity.

]]> By: Andromeda http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2010/09/09/readers-advisory-on-hulu/#comment-1799 Andromeda Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:00:10 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=1133#comment-1799 Huh, I read that totally differently than you did, I think. I’m inferring that you read it as “fans of The Book Group are 27x more likely to watch This Other Show than they are to watch The Book Group”? But I instinctively read it as “fans of The Book Group are 27X more likely than average Hulu watchers to also watch This Other Show”.

(If it has the latter meaning, also, then the “84% also watch…” idea does *not* mean the same thing. It conveys the same social meaning of “if you liked this, you might also like that”, but it is referencing a completely different, and less useful, mathematical model.)

I suppose I will be offended as well, but I will be offended by Hulu using mathematical language in imprecise ways. ;) Now I’m curious what their recommendation algorithm is, though.

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