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This doesn't really solve the problem though. There's still to much information to manage it.

I wonder if any social-links-sites (hacker news, reddit etc.) have tried with an algorithm similar to that which last.fm uses, where you get suggestions on stories based on which previous stories you have shown preference for? (I'm sure this sort of ranking has some fancy name as well)

If not - Why?

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Reddit certainly attempted this a few years ago. They had a 'recommended' tab in their main navigation. It worked about as well as their search at the time (ie. completely useless).

If I recall, it was based on your activity (this was pre-subreddits) so if you interacted with lots of political stories, for instance, similar political stories would be suggested.

The problem was if you downmodded a bunch of articles involving Ron Paul, your recommended links would be Ron Paul articles.

"The problem was if you downmodded a bunch of articles involving Ron Paul, your recommended links would be Ron Paul articles."

I could think of an obvious solution for that problem.

can anyone find references as to why the feature was removed?

I don't know, but I imagine the resources they needed to commit to it were pretty hefty.

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