[marmaduke]

The problem is that it’s called a recommendation, as if your close friend, who knows you, told Amazon, hey I think this person might also want to buy XYZ. Or a jazz connoisseur says you might like this album if you liked that one.

But it’s not, it’s a tractable similarity based solution to the question of, which of millions of ads to show, in order to increase CTR.

The biggest difference is motive: a good recommendation is made in good faith for the benefit of the recipient while ads are businesses trying to turn a profit. Maybe that’s why this meme never dies.

[fxtentacle]

Perfectly said.

If I had an acquaintance who's a recovering drug addict, then I would never ever recommend him to try out a new drug, because that is obviously against his best interests. But for an ethical void such as a company blindly pursuing profits, bombarding him with free samples for highly addictive drugs would be an effective strategy for increasing short-term profits.