Google has recently announced some new additions to their Google Prediction API, designed to help developers create new applications that predict likely future outcomes through a better understanding of Google algorithms.
Because Google has a vested interest in helping users find what they want. That’s their primary objective. That’s the only way they’re going to make their money. These new additions include multi-category prediction, and continuous output and mixed input combinations.
So, what does this mean? Let’s say you’re working for an online news company that hopes to keep users on their site as long as possible. At the end of each article, you’d like to lead the user into reading another article. Rather than just hoping they click the “next” button on your site and land a page that will interest them, you can suggest articles based on the kinds of stories the user has read before. You can use your user’s past interests to lead them toward information you believe they’d find interesting because of it.
Personal preference. Personalized recommendations. It would almost be creepy if it wasn’t so helpful.