Recommender Technology:
Recommender systems are based on proprietary artificial intelligence technology developed by Dr. Kris Hammond at the AI labs at the University of Chicago. Currently a professor at Northwestern University, Dr. Hammond is also Recommender, Inc.'s Chief Technical Visionary.

Our systems differ from existing on-line recommendation products in that recommendations are the beginning of the Interactive Personalization process whereas other technologies treat recommendations as an end point. Recommender technology allows users to react to recommended items via our proprietary recommendation tweak panel that enables Interactive Personalization.

Interactive Personalization: The Process
Recommender systems deliver starting point recommendations immediately, without the time consuming preference building process required by existing products. Instead, recommendations are served in response to examples:

A) Given by the customer,

B) Based on a product the customer is currently viewing, or

C) Triggered by a collaborative filtering engine's recommendation.

Through a "conversation" with the system in reaction to recommendations, users can quickly and easily and fine tune recommendations to find the perfect item/information for them.

For an idea of how Recommender technology works, take the vertical category of restaurants. Imagine how you normally talk with a friend to find a restaurant in an unfamiliar city. You might say, "When I’m in San Francisco, I want to eat at a restaurant like Daniel in New York.” Your friend then gives you a suggestion. At that point, you respond to the suggestion, “How about some place like that, but more casual?” or “How about some place hipper?” Then your friend serves up your personalized recommendation. Interactive Personalization mirrors this human give-and-take, back-and-forth dialogue. As a result, the process is intuitive and enables a dialogue between your customers and product/content in your databases.

If you are searching for a video to rent, you might tell our Movie Navigator that you want a movie similar to "When Harry Met Sally." Since the film is a smart romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan that takes place in New York, Movie Navigator recommends "You’ve Got Mail", also a smart romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan that takes place in New York. Most importantly, "You’ve Got Mail" leaves you with the same overall impression and feeling as does "When Harry Met Sally."

Recommender systems carry on a conversation with users to determine what they want through intelligent interaction.