Semantic Gifts: Valentine's Day Edition
Just in time for Valentine's Day shopping, a new version of Semantic Gifts ( http://semanticgifts.com ) went live today. Representing much more than new romantically themed gift ideas, the update approaches the problem of gift recommendation using social media in some fundamentally different ways.
The first obvious change is the target audience: guys looking for gifts for their girlfriends or wives. A particularly challenging purchase for many men, romantic gestures can be much more stressful than a more open ended gift like those used by the original Semantic Gifts. Additionally being a more tightly "themed" holiday there is naturally a smaller scope of gifts which are pertinent, and we found they fit well into more of a categorization model.
Though the app is targeted at guys looking for gifts for their significant others, girls can participate as well, with a short questionnaire on the types of gifts they'd like to receive.
The results have moved to a categorical model - instead of suggesting a particular product, the engine now recommends one of ten types of gifts that most closely match the text streams entered. In a move toward further transparency the system also provides some feedback on the observations that led up to the recommendation, something that the users of the first edition indicated would be helpful.
From a technology perspective the engine is largely unchanged. The emphasis on the first edition leaned more on profiling users against archetypal sources using topic modelling techniques, while the direct feedback of the Valentine's Edition and some better extraction algorithms wound up with more mass on the statistical side this time around.
Check out the new version and let us know what you think - many of the changes (and not-changed things) were based on feedback from the first edition. And stay tuned for the next version coming up, we've got some exciting ideas in the works.
The first obvious change is the target audience: guys looking for gifts for their girlfriends or wives. A particularly challenging purchase for many men, romantic gestures can be much more stressful than a more open ended gift like those used by the original Semantic Gifts. Additionally being a more tightly "themed" holiday there is naturally a smaller scope of gifts which are pertinent, and we found they fit well into more of a categorization model.
Though the app is targeted at guys looking for gifts for their significant others, girls can participate as well, with a short questionnaire on the types of gifts they'd like to receive.
The results have moved to a categorical model - instead of suggesting a particular product, the engine now recommends one of ten types of gifts that most closely match the text streams entered. In a move toward further transparency the system also provides some feedback on the observations that led up to the recommendation, something that the users of the first edition indicated would be helpful.
From a technology perspective the engine is largely unchanged. The emphasis on the first edition leaned more on profiling users against archetypal sources using topic modelling techniques, while the direct feedback of the Valentine's Edition and some better extraction algorithms wound up with more mass on the statistical side this time around.
Check out the new version and let us know what you think - many of the changes (and not-changed things) were based on feedback from the first edition. And stay tuned for the next version coming up, we've got some exciting ideas in the works.
posted by A at
5:10 PM
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