Amazon.com Admits Concocting Some Recommendations

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December 04, 2002 (4:58 PM EST)

Amazon.com Admits Concocting Some Recommendations

Amazon.com wants you to be sure to have clean underwear, no matter what else you're buying.

On Wednesday Amazon.com made the shocking admission that it doctors some of its product recommendations, which are supposedly compiled by objective software that compares each customer's purchasing history with the histories of others who've made similar purchases.

For instance, the page for the DVD "Titanic" states, "Customers who bought this DVD also bought 'Forrest Gump,' 'Saving Private Ryan,' 'Gladiator,' and 'Independence Day.' "

But Amazon.com said some of the recommendations for additional products are made up.

Specifically, Amazon.com salts its recommendations to steer customers to buy items at the company's new apparel stores, which launched in October. The company couldn't make recommendations at its apparel store because it hadn't been in business long enough to compile a database of customer preferences, so it simply made up recommendations, giving the suggestions a humorous edge so customers would know they weren't real.

For instance, customers who bought the book "Leadership," by macho former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, were also directed to buy Lady Bug Rain Boots from Target.

Amazon's practice has been the subject of speculation on the Internet for weeks; Joshua Allen, who writes the "Better Living Through Software" Weblog, noted on Nov. 9 that when he bought the book "Essential .NET," Amazon.com suggested he buy clean underwear to go with the book.

"We felt it would be evident to people that since the store was so new, we wouldn't have the transaction history to create database similarities," an Amazon.com spokeswoman explained.

Perhaps in light of the mini-controversy, instead of saying that customers "also bought" the recommended clothing-store items, Amazon.com now says that the other customers "also wear" the recommended items.

Hmm. So does Amazon.com employ legions of inspectors to check the cleanliness of its customers' underwear?