Recommendation Systems

Sheikh Bilal Yousuf

Agenda Practical side Discuss Examples Business Implications

Focus of my presentation

Why RS?? 93% of the information

produced worldwide is in Digital Format

623 Exabytes of Data Exabyte? 5 to 8 Exabytes of traffic / Month

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exabyte http://www.c-i-a.com/

Why RS?? - 2

1.59 billion Internet Users 24% of the World’s population

213 million search queries a day

http://www.c-i-a.com/pr0509.htmhttp://searchenginewatch.com/2156461

Why RS?? - 3

RS – problem of information filtering RS – problem of machine learning Enhance user experience

Assist users in finding information Reduce search and navigation time

Increase productivity Increase credibility Mutually beneficial proposition

Are RS = Search Engines? Radically Different Concepts SE

Input -> Query Processing -> Results RS

Behavior Analysis Learns users personality

Currently SE>RS Turnaround possible?

http://machine-learning.blogspot.com/2009/12/from-search-to-recommender-systems.html

Paradigm Shift

Google Personalized Search “Beginning today, Google will now

personalize the search results of anyone who uses its search engine, regardless of whether they’ve opted-in to a previously existing personalization feature.“

(Dec 4, 2009)

SEOs R.I.P

Paradigm Shift -2

Other players Yahoo Search Builder Eurekster Rollyo Ask

Googling “Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope” (Query by Salman)

Googling “Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope” (Query by Me)

Googling “Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope” (Query by Coolguy)

Youtube

RS in e-industries

Movies Music Search Engines Retail Auction, etc

Netflix

Movie Rental Choose from 65000 titles 5 million active customers

Ship 1.4M disks per day from 40 locations 1.4B ratings since 1997

2M ratings per day 1B predictions per day

Netflix ChallengeStats from 2006, before the Netflix Challenge

http://blog.recommenders06.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/bennett.pdf

Give Ratings, get Recommendations

Become the principal music service for consumers globally Replace broadcast radio/TV as the

primary source of music listening and discovery

Replace CDs as the primary way to listen to music on-demand

http://blog.recommenders06.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/beaupre.pdf

#1 Music Site (Unique Users) – July ’06 Yahoo! Music 25.5 mil. iTunes Application 20.1 mil. AOL 17.4 mil. MTV Music 12.2 mil. MySpace Music 11.2 mil.

#1 in total usage minutes per month – July ‘06 Yahoo! Music 600 mil. AOL 265 mil. MTV 119 mil. MySpace Music 48 mil.

http://blog.recommenders06.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/beaupre.pdf

Y! Music - PersonalizationOver 7 billion

explicit user music ratings

Over 30 million user-customized LAUNCHcast radio-stations

Business Goals

Increased Levels of: Engagement Trust, loyalty, retention Switching costs Media and transaction revenue

Leads to Convenience Quality Control Discovery

http://blog.recommenders06.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/beaupre.pdf

Strands Inc.

Develops technologies to better understand people’s taste and help them discover things they like and didn’t know about

Social Recommender Engine provides real-time recommendations of

products and services

http://www.crunchbase.com/company/strands

Strands Inc. - 2

Operate in 3 areas Business Solutions Personal Finance (moneyStrands) Social Discovery

StumbleUpon

A web community 8,865,182 members Users can discover and rate Web

pages, photos, and videos It is a personalized recommendation

engine which uses peer and social-networking principles.

http://www.crunchbase.com/company/strands http://www.stumbleupon.com/

SOCIAL DISCOVERY!

www.stumbleupon.com

Psychology Interests me…