“Launched last August.., LikeMinds allows users to copy their product ratings to different services and generates product recommendations based on those ratings. Once the ratings are compiled from Amazon, Apple’s, iTunes, Netflix, Blockbuster  and other sites and transferred, they can be analyzed against those of other users, geographically mapped and placed into bar charts and Venn diagrams showing consumers what they normally buy and what they’ll likely purchase in the future based on the tastes of folks just like them. ”

Full Article available on TheStreet.com

1. A graphical representation of your LikeMinds score (via similarity needle)
2. A Venn diagram of books you have in common with this person.
3. Ratings distribution of what this person tends to rate things (e.g. Do they rate everything 3 stars?)
4. Summary of what is their favorite subjects/genres (e.g. What book subjects does this person read?)

Example summary of users book ratings

We’ve added a new feature on the movie pages, where you will now see other movies that people who like the displayed movie have also enjoyed.

Clicking the “More” button it will bring up the next highest movies that correlate with Good Will Hunting.

People who liked "Good Will Hunting" also liked...

How do we calculate this?

We calculate similarities between movies the same way that we calculate similarities between people to get the LikeMinds scores.    So you can think of this as a LikeMinds score between two movies.   Based on ratings of an item, we look for fundamental patterns that are similar among these items.   Then we search our database for the given movie (e.g. “Good Will Hunting”) and identify other movies that people who liked “Good WillHunting” have also liked.

Every month SFNewTech selects the hottest new startups in San Francisco to show off there products and services, and this month they’re focusing on the newest social media companies.   At the meetup, we”ll be presenting a live demo of the LikeMinds application and announcing our latest developments.

The SF New Tech Meetup is a series of regular events for techies, recruiters, investors, journalists and anyone else who just wants to see the hottest technology in town up close. San Francisco’s NewTech community is the oldest and largest of it’s kind with 5000+ active members.  To become a member, visit: SFNewTech.com

Details:

When: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 from 5:30 PM – 11:00 PM (PT)

Where: Mighty  (119 Utah Street)  Map

Price: $20/person

More Details on SFNewTech.com

Menu for Friends of Friends

You typically know who your like-minded friends are, but what about their friends?  Find out what you have in common with friends of your friends by using the
“Friends of Friends” tab on LikeMinds.  Explore friends of your friends, discover what they like, and learn what type of people your friends are friends with.  All the same functionality is now available for Friends of Friends, including NewToYou, Most-LikeMinded, In-Common and Recent Activity.

Wondering who your friends of friends are?   Anyone who is friends with at least one of your friends on LikeMinds is in this group.   For example, if Joe is your friend and Sue is a friend of Joe’s (but not yours), then Sue will be in your “Friends of Friends” group.

Earlier the month we also released profiles pages, demographic info and a number of performance improvements.  And I’d like to welcome all the new users from HackingNetflix.

We also have a big announcement at the end of the month, so stay tuned.

We’ve just released our coolest new features that we hope you’ll like:

1.Item Summary: With a simple mouse over of any item, you get a  summary of that item , including the average rating by  your friends and LikeMinds.

Summary of the movie "Three Kings"

2. Which friends rated it?
You can quickly see which friends have rated an item by just scrolling over the count of friends who rated that item.

My six friends who have rated the movie "Three Kings"

3. And more:

• Item pages  that provide a snapshot of which friends and LikeMinds have rated the item.
• Mouse over  any user’s image will provide a summary comparison between you and that user.
• Recent activity of your friends or LikeMinds.
• Summary pages for each domain (movies, books and music) that show all recent activity and top rated items in each domain.

Let us know what you think.

- Alan

The Silicon Valley New Tech Meetup is a series of monthly events for techies, entrepreneurs, investors, journalists and anyone else who interested in seeing demos of the latest new technology in the Valley.  With over 4,480 Members, the Silicon Valley NewTech Meetup, is one of the largest Meetup groups in the country.

Details:
When: Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Where: Palo Alto, DLA Piper 2000 University Ave, Palo Alto, CA
How to attend: Join the Silicon Valley New Tech Group. This event will fill-up, so apply early if you would like to attend.

If you don’t have your own group of movie gurus to ask, we created a way to combine the opinions of all the gurus on LikeMinds.   We average the ratings of the users with the most number of ratings, to come up with a guru consensus.   This should give you one place to see what gurus think are the best movies, books or music.

Guru Consensus