The Application of Data-Mining to Recommender Systems

In a world where the number of choices can be overwhelming, recommender systems help users find and evaluate items of interest. They connect users with items to “consume” (purchase, view, listen to, etc.) by associating the content of recommended items or the opinions of other individuals with the consuming user’s actions or opinions. Such systems have become powerful tools in domains from electronic commerce to digital libraries and knowledge management. For example, a consumer of just about any major online retailer who expresses an interest in an item – either through viewing a product description or by placing the item in his “shopping cart” – will likely receive recommendations for additional products. These products can be recommended based on the top overall sellers on a site, on the demographics of the consumer, or on an analysis of the past buying behavior of the consumer as a prediction for future buying behavior. This paper will address the technology used to generate recommendations, focusing on the application of data mining techniques.