Facebook has missed out on a tremendous opportunity to use recommendation permissions to annotate their social graph with trust information – that’s an order of magnitude more valuable than the graph itself.

They got it wrong. No one is going to say “please show me more ads based on what my friends like.” But plenty of people will ask a friend to recommend digital cameras or books to them. There are subtle and important differences. First, there’s the asking. Asking someone for recommendations puts both parties in a position of giving permission. That changes the feel of the transaction.

Second, and more importantly, most of the people who are friends on Facebook are probably complete bozos when it comes to buying cameras or LCD TVs. I’m not dissing them, it’s just a fact of life that we trust certain people for certain kinds of things. I may trust one friend’s judgment on clothes and another’s on music.

Source link: ZDNet

Powered by Qumana