this is super informative! But hey, I feel like collaborative filtering could get kinda limited with niche items or new users. How would you tackle that?
Great point! Collaborative filtering does struggle in those cases, especially with the ‘cold start’ problem. I mentioned some solutions, like using a damped mean or confidence intervals to counteract that. Do you think those would cover it, or would you look for something else?
Hitesh Sanjay Nalamwar I see! So it’s like giving new items a ‘safe’ score until there’s enough data. I think the confidence interval thing is interesting but sounds complex. Is it something that could work for smaller sites, too?
Olanrewaju Oyedele Absolutely, it can be adapted for smaller sites! You’d just need a simplified approach to calculate a baseline average score, maybe even just at the category level. That way, every new item gets a fair start without needing tons of data right away.