The Business of Book Recommendations

Algorithms help advertisers target us with books and movies we’re likely to like. Macy Halford wonders: “Will they one day grow so good at reading my mind that they’ll be interchangeable with my real-life friends? …Part of the fun is clicking through all the crazy stuff Netflix thinks I should watch. Netflix is like a rather dimwitted but well-meaning robot-friend. But while it makes sense for Netflix to rely on this automated recommendation system (it’s essentially a video-rental store), it makes less sense for Goodreads, which is a community first and foremost. What I like about it is the updates I get telling me what my buddies are reading.”