Bill Gates-Backed Social Recommendation App Likewise Now Available for iOS and Android (axios.com) 34
Bill Gates is not giving up on saving the world, but he is helping launch a new social recommendation engine. Likewise, as the iOS and Android app is known, is designed to be a place to get trusted recommendations on everything from restaurants to books, movies and TV shows. From a report: It won't cure polio or fix the U.S. education system, but Likewise could fill a niche helping people keep track of the books and TV shows their friends recommend as well as to discover new places. The free app, which launches today, began as the brainchild of Larry Cohen, a longtime Gates aide who serves as CEO of Gates Ventures. The Microsoft co-founder is funding the Bellevue, Wash.-based company, which has been working for nearly a year and has about 20 employees. "It's not the next Office, but there's a real need here," Cohen told Axios. Cohen is chairman of Likewise, with his onetime Microsoft colleague Ian Morris serving as CEO.
Re: (Score:1)
Err....who the fuck needs an APP for this?
Don't people naturally discuss the books and TV shows and other interests their friends have and recommend when they are hanging out, talking and spending time with them??
If not, WTF do they talk about?
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"The free app ..." (Score:2)
... my ass.
Yelp contamination anyone?
It will be worse than Amazon recommendations, Rotten Tomatoes, Google Reviews, and all those 5-stars from aunts and uncles.
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since it's backed by gates... it will be bad.
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Agree.
Wanna join a pool about how fast it's hacked?
I already got the 15-30 minute slot.
free (Score:3)
advertisement.
Re: (Score:2)
advertisement.
And you can see how much people care about it based on their response. At time I posted this (hours after it was first added) it's still only 28 posts. No one cares about Yet Another social media/ Yet another review site.
Advertise all they want. Noone cares anymore.
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the point is that they are going to promote these posts as "we are so credible/important that even slashdot talks about us" even if slashdot readers care or not.
So it's Yelp (Score:2)
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I've not really used Yelp that much before, I've occasionally run across it from Google Searches...but that's about it.
What problems does Yelp have that you are referring to?
Is this for real, or clickbait? (Score:2)
The app's name isn't mentioned, not even in original article!
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It's the first word in the second sentence.
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Likewise.
(Cue Abbot and Castello...)
What the world needed (Score:2)
Another playground for astroturfers.
But maybe it's a good thing. If companies gaming the "recommendation system" have to spend more and more money to keep gaming it, maybe they will eventually go bankrupt.
Re:What the world needed (Score:4, Insightful)
I ran a review/rating site over a decade ago. It was the first real website I ever launched and its purpose was to collect reviews and ratings on As Seen On TV products. I had quite a collection of positive and negative reviews on a lot of products. (Including some scary reviews such as multiple claims of chemical burns from a popular hair removal product that was still available last I checked.) Even back then, I'd get a "mysterious" influx of positive reviews for products that all were essentially the same. These all invariably came from the same IP address. Nowadays, I'm sure those astroturfing posts could vary the wording and be run from different IP addresses all to hide the fact that the reviews were faked.
I know some review sites, like Yelp, have underhanded practices, but I don't envy the honest review sites out there. You constantly need to watch out for and take down fake reviews otherwise any real reviews on your site will just look faked as well. That site will always have a special place in my heart as the first website I ever ran, but I definitely don't miss the work that came from running that site.
US only? (Score:1)
Suddenly I feel the need (Score:2)
for an electronic condom for my electronics. /s
I wonder how many boatloads of cash the ad revenue to push "recommendations" to the "users" of this app will pay out;
"there's a real need here" (Score:3)
While I agree there's a need for a review/recommendation system that can't be gamed by bad actors, nothing about this one indicates it will be any better than the rest.
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While I agree there's a need for a review/recommendation system that can't be gamed by bad actors, nothing about this one indicates it will be any better than the rest.
It sounds like in the long run the intention is to combat fake reviews by surfacing only reviews from people you have a social connection to. There are obvious problems with that, among them that it only works if people you're connected to (a) use the app and (b) have posted an opinion on something you're interested in, but it seems less prone to gaming.
Saving the world? (Score:2)
More like harvesting data from the world.
And when does it take 20 people a year to make a recommendation app? It just came out so they weren't dealing with users or trying to get stores to put signs up for the app.