Online recommendations that really are useful
Any Internet user - and particularly social media user - will have noticed the increasingly personalised nature of adverts appearing on their screens. You look up a specific hotel on one website, and suddenly it appears on an unrelated website later in the day. AllYOURS is a start-up company planning to take the concept further and offer comprehensive personalisation in notification systems that are genuinely useful. The start-up was born when the European Research Council (ERC) awarded a EUR 1.25 million starting grant to Anne-Marie Kermarrec at the French public research institute Inria. Over the five-year GOSSPLE project, due to finish in August 2013, she and her team have invented the concept of an 'implicit social network'. The network is built and maintained in a fully decentralised manner so that each user is in charge of his or her own personalised data. This set-up addresses privacy concerns that users may have over 'big brother' companies monitoring their every move. AllYOURS -has also been awarded an ERC grant, this time of almost EUR 150 000 for Proof of Concept - this applies to researchers who need additional funding to establish the innovation potential of ideas arising from their ERC-funded frontier research projects. This project will investigate how to turn their concept into a concrete service, targeting both Internet users and small companies. More than ever before, the Internet is now all about users. They consume the most bandwidth by far, decide which applications are successful and generate the most content. Everyone is aware of the explosion in social networks, but the impact on how navigation has changed attracts less attention. Many users are now navigating through the links they come across rather than carrying out explicit searches. There is however a risk: the sheer volume of information can be overwhelming, and ultimately frustrating. If notification systems are to be genuinely useful, they must be personalised according to the user's activity; what he or she uses the Internet for, his or her posts, purchases, searches and interests. For companies, personalisation poses several problems: storing a huge amount of information on each user is very expensive. Users are also increasingly reluctant to provide companies with indications of their preferences. Meanwhile small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are struggling to reach potential customers because of the expertise and resources required to develop the necessary algorithms. AllYOURS is able to recommend items instantly, and does not require subscriptions to feeds or interests. Users must only indicate whether or not they appreciate items recommended - for example through a simple 'like' or 'dislike' button. The fact that personal data is stored on each user's own machine also provides reassurance on privacy. For enthusiastic social networkers, AllYOURS also provides each individual with a live social network of participants with similar interests - the so-called implicit social network.For more information, please visit: GOSPEL http://www.gossple.fr(opens in new window) Project factsheet INRIA http://www.inria.fr/en/teams/asap(opens in new window)
Countries
France