CDNow uses collaborative filtering for their My CDNow program. This information is compared with choices of other CDNow customers. Once the analysis is run, customers can use the site s Album Advisor program, which makes more than 45,000 suggestions daily, and CDNow Update, which delivers music advice via e-mail every other week to 600,000 customers. One drawback to collaborative filtering is that it is not conducive to all types of businesses, especially those with many dimensions and variables that have to be taken into account. For example, the CEO of online retailer Garden Escape, Inc. does not favor collaborative filtering because it does not take into account all of the variables such as where a customer lives, individual garden conditions, and personal preferences.
Neural networks represent words and people as mathematical vectors.
Related words, such as peanut butter and jelly, are turned into neighboring vectors. Every piece of data received by the system moves certain vectors closer and others farther away. The neural network constantly refines itself and its user profiles. The raw processing power of these systems lets them make connections that no human would. Infoseek designed InfoMatch, which lets banner advertisements act as agents, searching out people with an attraction to the advertised product or a history of clicking on ads like itself.