How NOT To Honor Martin Luther King Jr.
Wal-Mart, you should be ashamed of yourself. Tsk.
posted by k_sra at 1/16/2006 05:42:00 PM
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posted by k_sra at 1/16/2006 05:42:00 PM
13 Comments:
surprise, surprise. so sad. Sam is rolling over right now.
Oh my freaking gosh!
This is why we can't have nice mapping!
I wonder what went wrong. The usual way that these recommendation systems work is either by finding common attributes or by looking at buying patterns. The common attributes approach wouldn't seem reasonable, given that there are probably no common cast members in those items and they're definitely not the same genre. I suppose it's possible that it could've been buying patterns. If enough people bought both items the recommendation system linked them together.
Another possibility -- and this is a bit of a stretch -- is that Walmart's system links items that customers view, even if they don't buy them. If, for example, a bunch of people view the descriptions of, say, both "Bridget Jones's Diary" and "The Texas Chainsaw Masacre", the system would consider them related and start recommending one of them to customers viewing the other. This sort of system would have two flaws:
1. It allows people to "seed" the recommendation system by logging in as various customers and alternately loading two unrelated products.
2. Once a recommendation shows up on a product page, more people will view it, strengthening the link between them.
Someone with the right know-how could really mess up a system like that.
You know, I was thinking about this last night and wondering if the plot and or description of the Apes movie has anything to do with the confusion. I mean to say, the film "Planet of the Apes" deals with human rights in a world where humans are enslaved and mistreated. Or is that too much of a stretch?
Or maybe the link is King Kong.
Hmm, don't know.
Oops, it looks like the only ones with the power of linking movies is Wal-Mart itself, not the general public.
Ah, so it's just a case of well-intentioned stupidity. Interesting that Walmart uses a manual system to associate products. I guess they do that to push products on customers. I wondered why, when I pulled up a Greg Bear collection, it recommended contact lenses. So, it's "related" in the sense that Walmart wants you to buy this thing and this other thing too. I bet that goes a long way to enhancing your shopping experience.
It looks like they recommend contact lenses with all of their books.
Well, Planet of the Apes stars Charlton Heston, who was a groundbreaker in bringing interracial relationships to the big screen (see Touch of Evil, The Omega Man). And it sure ain't like POTA is a great celebration of white supremacy.
Looks like, according to worldgineer's link it was a case of someone seeing what they wanted to see. Had they checked further, they might well have found the same MLK material linked to a Superman, Jesus of Nazareth or Ghandi video as a similar item.
Well, that's if you take Wal-Mart's word for it. It's certainly possible it was an intentionally racist act by the disgruntled employee that has to sit around making these recommendations.
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