Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Similarities Engine and the Pareto Principle

"Way back in the dark ages, aka about ten years ago, Rod found this cool web toy called the Similarities Engine, which let you submit five album names and suggested music you might like, based on what other people had submitted to the SE. Seemed pretty cool, and someone else seemed to think so, too, because the SE eventually disappeared from the web, with a message indicating that the technology had been sold. I don't know who bought it, but sometime later Amazon.com started offering suggestions -- "People who bought this book also bought..." Which the initial intro I'll use to this story:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html
...because it starts off with a great anecdote about how Amazon.com suggestions brought an almost out-of-print book ("Touching the Void"-- which I've never read but perhaps will need to buy now) back from the brink of oblivion by (algorithmically) suggesting it to "Out of Thin Air" readers.
But the article is actually cooler than just that. It talks about the Pareto Principle, aka the 80-20 Rule, which is that (in many instances) 80% of the effect comes from 20% of a population..."
[thanks to Michael K for the email and link]

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