Tech Anorak

TypicalGuy asked:


I’m curious as to how the questions displayed on the Y! Answers homepage determined? From my observations they are simply current, open questions from any category/subject area.

For those that are not sure what I mean by recommender systems, take Amazon for example. Amazon’s site makes use of several recommender systems and as a result we see product recommendations upon loggin into the site or have a populated shopping-cart.

My question is, are the questions on the homepage generated and customized to user preferences (which maybe calculated from algorithms that take into account implicit data such as the amount of time or the number of questions/answers users spend in specific question/answer categories). If not, is implementing such a recommender system beneficial?

The argument is that for many users, sub-group affiliation is not as relevant, and many people simply contribute to any open question they come across, defeating the purpose of having such a rec. system.
edit:

I forgot to mention, I realize there is also the option of showing the popular questions instead of the default recent questions. Nevertheless, I am still interesting in why a recommender system isn’t implemented, and what the Y! community feels about this.

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