I think it is interesting that some people cherish the Amazon recommendations above everything, whereas others are fundamentally unhappy with it. Unfortunately I belong in the later category. Sure, sometimes Amazon comes up with something interesting to me, but in general it does not. I wonder if I am just too weird for a recommender system to grasp, or if it hints at the system still being very imperfect.
I agree: I rarely find that suggestions based off of anonymous, aggregrate consumer "social" data helps "pick" worthwhile suggestions for me. If a category of shopping is completely new to me, then what everyone else knows can make me more aware of the commonplace options (which is helpful). But if I know anything about the category of items I am looking at, I really don't care what the anonymous masses already know because I know it already too or it's a very "obvious" connection.
