A recommendation engine is a simple mechanism to learn about stories that other people may have enjoyed reading on your site. The list of recommended items (or web pages) is often published on the site so that new visitors can quickly discover popular stuff without having to dig the archives.
Stories recommended by Digg members
Items recommended by Amazon Customers
Popular sites likes Digg, Amazon, List.fm etc. too have “automated” recommendation systems in place to help audience discover new stories or products that may be related to the item that they are currently browsing. For instance, every Amazon page has a section called “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” that displays related items and accessories.
Add a Recommendation Engine to your Blog
Google has recently added a new recommendation gadget to Google Friend Connect that makes it easy for bloggers and website owners to know about content that readers find useful and also share it with other visitors.
You can place a small “Recommend It” (customizable) button beneath your articles and readers who enjoyed reading that story can click the button to share their appreciation.
All these recommended articles will then appear in the public recommendation list on your site (see screenshot on the right) and pages that get the maximum ‘votes’ will surface to the top of the list.
Unlike the star rating widgets, the recommendation system provides a single option – “I loved this content” – to the visitors so its not about rating the quality of blog posts. If they like something, they say yes, otherwise they ignore the widget.
The best part is that if a visitor recommending any web page is logged into his or her Google Account, their Google Profile get attached to the recommendation and I won’t be surprised if, going forward, all these recommendations also turn up in the public Google Profile.
Related: More useful Add-ons for Blogger
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/add-recommendation-system-to-your-site/8600/
Tags: Archives, exclusive, google friend connect, Most Popular, Internet
Reader Comments
This is interesting if you have loads of traffic.. but you are the boss and you know which one suits best for your site and take less space.
Written by Rahul on 05.15.09
Wow!! that is a clever widget..but it will count the users of ‘Google Connect’ only.
Written by aboutonlinetips.com on 05.15.09
Does anyone know of a similar Wordpres plugin?
Written by Navin Poeran on 05.15.09
This is great Amit, am already using it over at my site, I was on the look out for something simple and engaging, this just fits my needs.
Written by Keith Dsouza on 05.15.09
<Unlike the star rating widgets, the recommendation system provides a single option
This is a big advantage as your readers dont have to stop and think, “what rating shall i give it?”
If they like it, they click on it.
I think this will prove very sticky on most med-high volume sites.
regards,
Ivan
Written by ivan walsh on 05.20.09