h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Right now, I can go on Amazon and it will recommend stuff I might like to buy. However, it only fairly mechanically recommends stuff which is like the other stuff I've already bought from them. Given that I don't buy EVERYTHING from them, this massively restricts what they recommend, and much of it I'm not actually interested in or already own. It does work, sometimes, but serendipity is rare. Result: I buy relatively few things there and spend more time adjusting my preferences to avoid things I know I won't like.

Right now, I can go on Rotten Tomatoes or imdb, and see the aggregated, averaged opinions of people I know nothing about and have nothing in common with. I can get an averaged out figure which expresses the lowest common denominator overall societal opinion on each film. This has some value, but it's limited. Result: I rent or buy movies which have good reviews, but because of quirks in my taste I don't enjoy, and miss movies I would have liked because they're not mainstream.

Right now, I can buy a magazine and read its movie reviews, or listen to a radio show, or whatever. But there I get the opinion of a single reviewer, and it takes time and a good deal of effort to work out how much weight to give to each reviewer's opinion. I am in 92% agreement with Jonathan Ross, who scored this film four stars, but I'm in 81% agreement with Mark Kermode, who gave it five. Should I watch it or not? Pass the calculator...

Right now, I can go on a dating site, answer an extensive questionnaire about what sort of person I am, and be given a mathematically determined matchup with any number of potential partners with whom I'm allegedly compatible. You are a 92% match for DeepBlueEyes. You are an 83% match for foxy_fun. Whatever. Result: many, many soul destroying experiences meeting people who on paper I should hit it off with.

Now, the idea: taste dating. The front end of a dating site, attached to the back end of a review/shopping site.

Imagine: log in. Fill in a questionnaire, like a dating site. Except this one doesn't ask what you look for in a partner - it asks what you look for in a book/film/tv show/DVD/magazine/song/album/comic book. It further asks you for a score out of ten for your favourite ten or twenty things are in each of those media. The more you fill in, the more reviews you provide, the better the matches you'll get. It also asks you for a review of at least one thing in each category that you DIDN'T like, and for, say, five things picked off a list just to see what you think.

When your profile is complete, you are matched with other users. Your scores are compared with theirs to provide an overall score of how much your tastes coincide. This step is, crucially, FREE. The site works better the larger the database of people who've done reviews, so the signup and review process has to be fast and very, very easy.

You are a 98% match for Dessicate_Dan. Congratulations.

Now here's the thing: you might want to meet Dan, you might not. For now, that's not important. The primary point of the site is this: Dan loves the things you love, hates the things you hate, and is ambivalent about the same things as you - except there's 2% of his "love it" stuff that you haven't reviewed. It's extremely likely that, if you knew what it was, you would LOVE that 2% also. Want to know what's in that 2%? That'll be a fiver please, and that'll sort you for a year.

For a small subscription, TasteDate will match you up with other people who have the same tastes as you, and then tell you what they've enjoyed that you've not yet tried. It's a way of making sure you never again pay money for something you don't love. It's a way of serendipitously discovering new things, with some confidence they won't be rubbish.

Crucially, it's based not on what they've *bought*, or what they *own* - it's based on what they've *enjoyed*. On what they actively recommend. I'm not aware of any site offering something like this.

So step 1 of the business plan: subscriptions.

You pony up the cash and discover Dessicate_Dan's comic book collection contains all the same ones you have, except he also recommends Batman: The Long Halloween. Do you want to buy this book? Click here to order... and if you're choosing something from someone who has a 90% match or better to your tastes, we offer a no-quibble, 30 day money back guarantee. If you don't LOVE your new book, send it back for a refund.

Step 2 of the business plan: a shopping portal for all the stuff you now want to buy. This is where I think the real money could be made, because you wouldn't need to be the cheapest site to get good traffic, because of the confidence your customers would have that they'll love what they're buying.

Finally, thanks to Dan you've discovered a bunch of stuff you never knew you'd like. Want his email address? That'll be a tenner.

Step 3 of the business plan: bringing it full circle to a contact/dating site mechanic, for those people who really want it.



I have not the skills, time or inclination to take this idea and make it a reality. I'm convinced that if someone does, it will make them a millionaire. I'd like it if, in the event someone does that, they grant me a financial consideration, but I won't hold my breath. Mainly, I'm putting this idea out for free simply because I want it implemented so I can use it.

Any comments? Any takers?

Yes, as the saying goes, the cash-rich younger generation and their money are soon parted. Good luck with it.

(I'd think of a way to package it - a trendy name and logo - then see if one of the major social networking companies would be interested in buying the idea off you. Getting a new site off the ground sounds like too much work to me.)

Sounds good to me

>>The more you fill in, the more reviews you provide, the better the matches you'll get. It also asks you for a review of at least one thing in each category that you DIDN'T like, and for, say, five things picked off a list just to see what you think.

I just read something today that said a date is likely to go better if you discuss shared dislikes rather than likes (research based apparently):

http://59seconds.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/love-in-59-seconds/

Looking at Amazon recommendations, I have often wondered how much more it would be used if it were smarter. If I say I like Naruto vol. 6, don't put Naruto vols. 1-5 in the top 5 of my recommendations: the chances are I already have them, or if not, have read them but won't buy them!
Also, wouldn't it be nice if they took the whole spectrum of your likes/dislikes, based on what other people say? What would it suggest to someone who likes the White Stripes but hates Freddy Got Fingered but likes Catch-22 but dislikes Goldeneye the game but loves Battlestar Galactica (the new version)?

I drew the line at cross-media recommendation.

If my bestest friend likes a book, odds are good I'll like it too. I'd put our overlap there well over 90%. Films, not so much, although we do have some significant overlap, say, 65%. Music... I'd say our tastes overlap by no more than 30%.

My favourite stupid Amazon recommendation: I bought an HDMI cable for about £15. Next time I went on the site, it recommended I buy a £1500 HD widescreen telly to go with it.

Amazon once recommended "Batman: Black and White" to me. This would be perfectly normal if it weren't recommended in the "Home and Garden" category.

Tiggy, I was getting ready to say
"Get it off the ground quickly: NOW even, before someone picks up you idea"

But that was before I read your last para...

Sounds good to me

There are dating websites where you tick the sports you enjoy or the kind of movies. What you seem to want is for this to get even more specific. Personally I wouldn´t want to trawl through 2000 book titles, clicking the ones I liked. Many of which I might well have liked, but have never heard of.

A kinda Mydex meets Facebook meets OKCupid meets Amazon. Hoom.

"Personally I wouldn´t want to trawl through 2000 book titles, clicking the ones I liked. Many of which I might well have liked, but have never heard of."

It wouldn't work like that.

You'd type the title of a book you liked (or hated). The website would quickly trawl a database like the one Amazon have, and autocomplete the title for you. You only need to type in ten or twenty, not 2000. Then for each one, just click a mark out of ten.

The site will then match you with other people who picked those same ten books, and gave them the exact same scores. In the staggeringly unlikely event someone does exactly that - picks exactly those ten books AND gives them the exact same scores, you have nothing to tell each other. The site might award you both a little flag - you have a TasteTwin!

The interesting point comes when someone has picked just nine of the ten books you did, and given them similar scores. You then get told there's a tenth book, and that they LOVED it. You now really want to know what that tenth book is... Or if they've similarly reviewed your ten, but they've also favourably reviewed another ten. By definition, this person's recommendation is quantitatively better than the recommendation of a reviewer in a magazine or newspaper.

Ten books (or DVDs, or albums) would be a sensible minimum. But obviously the more you enter, the more accurate your matches. You could award little coloured stars for the number of reviews you've entered, to encourage people to keep entering more. If you did ten the day you joined, and another couple each day, you'd soon have a comprehensive list of stuff you like.

So something pretty similar to how Last.Fm works for music then? But working with different types of media as well?

FB

And if so would you anticipate some sort of equivilant of scrobbling? Something you could install with iplayer about what you watch, or registered with LoveFilm etc?

FB

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/sep/11/last-fm-new-music-dating-site

It is a good idea. Luckly I met my fiance on a normal FOC dating website. (Plenty of Fish) and we get on brilliantly.

Of course some things we disagree on but mainly we love the same movies and TV and shows and enough music to not argue over.

I dont get this opposites attract thing. For me having stuff in common is essential for a good lasting relationship.

Ere Twiggster....

A pal told me about this website:-

http://getglue.com/

Which is from what a gather supposed to sort of do what you were talking about. I'm gonna check it out.

FB

I used to use dating websites a lot, and I would base my choices largely on the manner in which they wrote about themselves*, rather than what they wrote. Of course it's nice if you can both** enjoy the same films, but there will be some very incompatible folk with the same tastes as you.


*...and the photo
**...assuming you don't practise polygamy. Is there a word like 'both' but which describes 3 people?

You could also ask if they like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain, whether they're not into yoga...