Anyone else getting strange recommendations from Amazon?

Carruthers • Aug 29, 2014 5:17 am
My Amazon recommendations are becoming increasingly bizarre.

I'm at a loss to understand how they recommend the boxed set of Batman DVDs on the basis that I bought the book 'How Apollo Flew to the Moon'.

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More disturbingly, I was recommended 'In Plain Sight', an account of the loathsome Jimmy Savile and his eventual unmasking, on the grounds that I had purchased 'Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival'.

That's about the uncontained engine failure and subsequent crash landing of the United Airlines DC-10 at Sioux City, Iowa, in 1989.

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Have a look at your Amazon recommendations, and if there are any oddities, please share!
Griff • Aug 29, 2014 7:01 am
Amazon does well, but Pandora apparently thinks I'm a middle-aged Chicano.
Sundae • Aug 29, 2014 7:44 am
Spam mail thinks I want a bigger penis.
infinite monkey • Aug 29, 2014 8:59 am
Gmail has long thought I speak Portuguese.
manicotti • Aug 29, 2014 10:03 am
Tries to sell me pasta and pasta accessories.
Carruthers • Aug 29, 2014 10:23 am
I've just discovered two more. 'Curiouser and curiouser' said Alice.

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Perhaps if I purchase 'Zombie Death-Ray Flesh Eaters 2' it will trigger a recommendation for 'Pride and Prejudice'. Stranger things have happened.
glatt • Aug 29, 2014 10:56 am
manicotti;908500 wrote:
Tries to sell me pasta and pasta accessories.


Well, can you blame them?

I can see how that would be offensive for pasta like you though. It's like slave trade or genocide or something. Selling one pasta to another.
manicotti • Aug 29, 2014 11:29 am
I've written letters but they won't respond.
BigV • Aug 29, 2014 2:17 pm
Perhaps they're bummed because they can't start a letter.
manicotti • Aug 29, 2014 2:22 pm
There's a lot of that going around.
chrisinhouston • Sep 8, 2014 12:08 pm
I'm Amazon Prime and order stuff just about every week. The other day I logged in and it suggested all kinds of dog and cat food even though I have never gotten any from Amazon or even looked at any products like that.

Funny but I also sometimes look at Vegetarian and Vegan cook books and then I get lots of recommendations for Paleo books with pictures of meat on the cover. :right:
Carruthers • Oct 15, 2014 2:53 pm
It's still happening...

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Happy Monkey • Oct 15, 2014 6:54 pm
I suspect that the weirdness of the suggestions is inversely proportional to the popularity of the "because you purchased" item. It probably lists all items that shared a shopping cart with it, weighted by frequency. A popular item is more likely to have a pattern, while a less popular item will give a grab bag of random items.
Carruthers • Oct 15, 2014 10:18 pm
Happy Monkey;911981 wrote:
I suspect that the weirdness of the suggestions is inversely proportional to the popularity of the "because you purchased" item. It probably lists all items that shared a shopping cart with it, weighted by frequency. A popular item is more likely to have a pattern, while a less popular item will give a grab bag of random items.


Ah! A commercial version of guilt by association.
Carruthers • Jul 7, 2018 7:23 am
This morning's recommendation from Amazon:

'Toilet Roll Holder Wall Mounted Bathroom Tissue Holder Anti-Rust Aluminium with Mobile Phone Storage Shelf'.

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You have to put your phone somewhere while you catch up with your paperwork.

Look, someone had to say it.

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Griff • Jul 7, 2018 7:30 am
You would think that living in the future we wouldn't have to poop.
Undertoad • Jul 7, 2018 8:06 am
So highly technological and sophisticated, and yet the toilet roll is mounted in the wrong direction.
Griff • Jul 7, 2018 8:08 am
confirmed
Carruthers • Jul 7, 2018 8:28 am
Undertoad;1011281 wrote:
So highly technological and sophisticated, and yet the toilet roll is mounted in the wrong direction.


Griff;1011282 wrote:
confirmed



Do you mean,

(a) the open end of the spindle should be at the LHS, or

(b) the loose end of the roll should be furthest from the wall?
chrisinhouston • Jul 7, 2018 8:35 am
I had this one recently
Undertoad • Jul 7, 2018 8:35 am
b)

I believe that modern rationality and science have solved this problem
Carruthers • Jul 7, 2018 8:40 am
Undertoad;1011285 wrote:
b)

I believe that modern rationality and science have solved this problem


I had to ask as a member of one's extensive household staff deals with these matters.;)
xoxoxoBruce • Jul 7, 2018 9:12 am
Undertoad;1011285 wrote:
b)

I believe that modern rationality and science have solved this problem


Unless you have a cat.:eyebrow:
Squawk • Jul 19, 2018 11:59 am
Facebook once suggested I join a group called 'poison girlfriends'. My ex girlfriend thought that was very funny.

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