4 posts and columns on suggestions

Blogs, MacBooks and GSM phones

in Mossberg’s Mailbox on February 16, 2011 at 3:20 pm PT

Walt answers readers’ questions on starting a blog, sleeping MacBooks and GSM phones.

YouTube Adds Personalized Channels to Lengthen Living Room Sessions

in Social on December 1, 2010 at 5:30 pm PT

YouTube today is launching a personalization update to its “Leanback” viewing mode, which is meant to be played on televisions. YouTube users who watch through Leanback already spend on average 30 minutes per session, two times longer than sessions on the Web.

News Byte

Flickr Gets More Social

in News on October 27, 2010 at 2:02 pm PT

Not content to let its users merely find photo-sharing friends and acquaintances, Flickr will now start proactively suggesting People You May Know on the service. Suggestions are based on your contacts plus your contacts’ contacts. Not thrilled with some of the suggestions? Dismiss them and the system will offer up a new batch. Users also are now able to import contacts from Facebook in addition to Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail.

News Byte

Twitter Offers Following Suggestions

in News on July 30, 2010 at 2:30 pm PT

Seeking to deepen user engagement, Twitter has been looking for ways to give its members, especially the newer ones, more guidance when it comes to navigating the sea of chatter and finding interesting streams. Today, it’s rolling out “Suggestions for You,” personalized recommendations for interesting folks to follow, generated by an algorithm that takes into account the people you already follow and the people they follow (although no one should be surprised if Twitter eventually makes it possible for well-heeled users to buy their way into the recommendations).