Filed under: Amazon.com (AMZN), Small business
The concept of “collaborative filtering” has been around for a long time. The pioneer is Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), which built the system that does things like “if you like this book, you might also like the following titles.” Essentially, this is based on a variety of data sources, such as your purchase history as well as the behavior of similar users.
Well, a startup company, Outbrain, is providing its own flavor of collaborative filtering. In fact, the company has announced a venture capital round of $5 million. The investors include Gemini Israel Funds, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and GlenRock Israel.
The thinking behind Outbrain is that people want to read news stories and articles that those who have similar interests also read and liked. So, through a widget, a news site or blogger can grant users to rank content (using a five-start system).
As more and more people use the system, the story links should become increasingly relevant to the users. It’s based on highly-sophisticated technology known as the Personalized Relevancy Score.
Although it’s really a matter of time to see if this stuff works, Outbrain’s investors are psyched about the deal. According to the Daniel Cohen, a general partner at Gemini Israel Funds: “With a great product and a great entrepreneur, this investment is a no (out)brainer.”
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook
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