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According to Carolyn Johnson at the Boston Globe, the future of personalized content is hitting the Internets next week, thanks to a popular NFL franchise.
The Kraft Group, best known for its investments in projects like Gillette Stadium and the New England Patriots, is sinking $10 million into an Internet start-up that will map people’s tastes, making it easier to discover content they like online.
Matchmine, which goes live next week, tries to turn what can seem ineffable and arbitrary - people’s preferences - into a usable set of data.
People create a “MatchKey” by rating the movies, music, online videos, and blogs they like. The site tries to map the basic elements of each choice to make accurate recommendations, so that even people with eclectic tastes can easily find new content they like.
The key is portable, meaning users can automatically plug in their preferences to any site that partners with Matchmine, so that even if it’s their first visit, they aren’t inundated with a home page filled with hip-hop if they only enjoy baroque music, for example.
This is great news. I’ve been promoting this idea for several years to anyone who would listen. and it’s great to see a group of people smart enough to capitalize on the opportunity. Not having seen the service, we can’t judge how well it works, but what’s a week when we’ve been waiting several years for this? I foresee envious ad networks wanting to get into the game as soon as real money starts flowing as a result of the recommendation network.
Several partners are already on board to accept MatchKeys, but nothing substantial.
Here’s how MatchKeys work.
Reading this, I got the sudden urge to scream.
Once people have created their keys, they can launch a desktop widget called the gumball machine, which allows people to float their mouses over bouncing gumballs to sample new media that Matchmine thinks they will like. Their choices and opinions about the new media help “teach” the program.
Please don’t screw this up with a goofy desktop app! I’ve worked with several companies trying to do something similar and a desktop app is a seriously bad idea, stick with the web interface. Or perhaps it’s built on Silverlight or AIR?
I am happy to see a new entrant into the personalization space, yet I remain skeptical that they can execute the technology, partnerships and consumer buy-in.
They need all three, and a lot of luck, to succeed.
Then there is the non-trivial issue called privacy. I don’t believe the system is private or secure until after the hackers have been beating on it for a few months, and they’re not going to do that until it gets enough traction to warrant the attention. Right now it’s just marketing copy, but it is a good read, nonetheless.
I’ll be keeping an eye out for Matchmine and report back once I’ve had a chance to try out the system.
