The Filter: Wisdom Of The Crowds Meets Personalization - Part II

Published: June 18, 2008 at 01:41 AM GMT
Last Updated: June 18, 2008 at 01:41 AM GMT

By Jerry Weinstein

Click Here to Read Part 1: First Look at Peter Gabriel's The Filter: A Discovery Engine for All Things

An Amuse Bouche Or A Meal?

Unlike Pandora, The Filter does not offer listeners complete tracks, only a thirty-second whiff of a song. Roberts grapples with the matter: "Pandora is revolutionizing radio - so they have to offer full tracks as they are competing with radio. We have focused our time and resources on developing algorithms and on making sense of people's tastes. In terms of consuming the recommendations, we have a thirty-second clip deal which enables people to get a taste of the track and then we have partnerships in place for people to click through and buy (iTunes, Amazon, Nokia Music, and soon eMusic). Having said all of that, I do know that the best way to taste a song is to listen to the whole thing. So, it makes sense for us to work on finding a way to offer full tracks in the future."

The Filter had just under 30,000 sign ups to the service since beta and 200,000 users have downloaded the plug-in that taps iTunes. Roberts emphasizes, "while The Filter's algorithms are very good at connecting pieces of content, we know that people trust recommendations from friends and experts. We want to enable people to use each other's tastes as filters to help them discover content that they wouldn't have before." Taking a page from Facebook's mini-feed, Roberts reasons: "If you have a friend who is a genius at discovering R&B acts, then why not just put their activity feed on your homepage and use them as a filter?" Coming from the world of magazines, Roberts foresees The Filter "as the next step on from editors filtering content for readers."

If anything, The Filter underlines the role of social networks. Roberts reveals that The Filter will make it easy for users to import friends and data from MySpace and Facebook. Hedging its bets, it will also make filtering widgets available on the key networks. But will The Filter succeed? Radio listeners log some sixteen hours per week, while car manufacturers report that CDs are rarely changed. Despite this, Roberts reports that he's getting twenty-five plus page impressions per visit on average. For those who study collaborative filtering, there are findings that will both fascinate and disturb marketers: Effective CF - which in The Filter's case combines wisdom of the crowds with one-to-one personalization -- reflects back on the host. The user feels that she is receiving better service. Even before Netflix harnessed its ratings, it reported that two-thirds of its rentals were the result of recommendations. Not only does The Filter offer the potential to enhance one's experience with media, but it will be useful in spotting emergent microtrends. Even as The Filter scales, it will be an ideal environment to break new talent. And of course, CF peers Amazon and Veoh will have to raise their game.

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