Comments | coalescent: The Magic of Amazon

coalescent

The Magic of Amazon

Nov 12, 2004 12:34

Last night in the pub, tinyjo and others where enthusing about Amazon's prediction engine, and how spookily accurate it can be about recommending things you want or need. I agree that normally it's very good, but this morning the following arrived in my inbox:
We've noticed that customers who ordered "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind [2004]" have ( Read more... )

Comments 56

colours November 11 2004, 04:42:24 UTC

personally, I'd go with just renting them :oD

I quite like it when my dvd rental thing says you might like to rent this if you liked that tho.

coalescent November 11 2004, 04:47:36 UTC

personally, I'd go with just renting them :oD

That's why I put in the bit about financial considerations not mattering, you know. Guilt-free retail therapy! :-p

I quite like it when my dvd rental thing says you might like to rent this if you liked that tho.

Does it have good taste?

colours November 11 2004, 05:07:23 UTC

Yes. It told me to watch the old version of 'the manchurian candidate'. henceforth, i love it.

ninebelow November 11 2004, 04:48:41 UTC

Financial considerations aside I would buy Love Actually because I have a suspicision it's actually quite enjoyable. However there is a hell of a lot of stuff I would buy financial considerations aside so it doesn't make Amazon's reccomendation very useful. This post has made me want to buy DVDs though so maybe Amazon have won.

coalescent November 11 2004, 04:50:52 UTC

Financial considerations aside I would buy Love Actually because I have a suspicision it's actually quite enjoyable.

I can't win. Damn you all as pedants! :-p

This post has made me want to buy DVDs though so maybe Amazon have won.

Amazon always wins.

(Unless they're fighting Batman, I assume).

tizzle_b November 11 2004, 05:01:12 UTC

I hate Amazon - which is something I forgot to add to my comment.

I very, very, very rarely buy any media products (either hardware or disc-relating) in shops these days. Normally it's only when they have crazily cheap sales (love for the fopp; a weekend back home from tonight means a visit to the hallowed land of fopp!) or if I know it'll be cheaper instore than online.

Online retailers don't tempt me with "other users bought this" type things at all. Plus; I understand categorisation for play/amazon etc. HMV/Virgin just confuse me!

coalescent November 11 2004, 05:59:29 UTC

I wish there was a fopp near me.

On the other hand, if there was a fopp near me I'd probably be even poorer.

Thread 10

tizzle_b November 11 2004, 04:58:57 UTC

I'd like to see 'Love Actually' because I'm not sure I can see it being 'wrong' - enjoyable and lightweight? I'm happy to settle for that. Toss in a few cameos and a fairly average plot and it's going to be an entertaining 'romcom' (oh how I hate that phrase).

However, financial considerations aside I'd probably buy every DVD I'd ever considered watching.

Except Adam Sandler's back catalogue - which I'd burn.

coalescent November 11 2004, 05:56:44 UTC

OK, so I shouldn't have included that 'financial considerations' caveat. I GET IT. :-p

Yes, Love, Actually is fluff. The sort of thing I perhaps would watch again if it happened to be on on a winter's night when I could curl up on the sofa, but not something I'm going to seek out.

You can burn all of Adam Sandler's films except Punch-Drunk Love, which I rather like.

tinimaus November 11 2004, 06:13:13 UTC

I'm sorry. I'm still trying to picture you curled up on a sofa, and I'm coming up all folded deck-chairs.

coalescent November 11 2004, 06:13:54 UTC

I'll have you know I can curl with the best of them. :-p

Thread 12

kalorlo November 11 2004, 05:16:07 UTC

I find Amazon's recommendations interesting to have a look at and go "Oh, fans of this seem to be buying that", but don't generally pay them any more attention. I have a huge list of stuff I want to buy anyway with far more concrete reasons than that.

Financial considerations aside, I probably wouldn't buy either of those films. Like I said, plenty of other things on the list and even with lots of money I find buying random films seems to be much more of a waste of it than buying books/games/manga/anime series... TV series boxsets are way more tempting. I tend to put off buying films from HMV entirely, and will only buy them online if they're something I *really* want.

coalescent November 11 2004, 05:57:29 UTC

I have a huge list of stuff I want to buy anyway with far more concrete reasons than that.

My problem is that Amazon seems to recommend stuff that I already have concrete reasons to buy, thereby reminding me that I was meaning to buy them ...

hawleygriffen November 11 2004, 05:24:23 UTC

It only occassionally gives me recs I might consider buying... for example, today for DVDs, it's reccing the Star Wars trilogy, Buffy season 6 (season 6!), and Troy. None of which I intend to buy. Of course, I haven't actually bought that much from Amazon as compared with a lot of people, so it's not gonna be as accurate, probably.

Mmm, Eternal Sunshine...