Redux Discovers Friends So You Don’t Have To
Nick Gonzalez
31 comments »
You’re probably familiar with the “recommended items” lists on sites like Amazon or Barnes and Noble. They help discover things you’ll probably like based on what you buy and what you view. Redux founder Darian Shirazi wants to apply the same power of discovery to growing communities of people online. The site is launching into beta today.
This site is part social network and part quiz show with the central goal being to learn the most about what you’re like and who you’d like. You fill out a profile with all the standard questions (music, age, sex, books) with the added bonus of an optional Myers-Briggs personality test. The site also lets users post photos, list their location, or chat with each other.
However, the heart of the site is training their algorithm on what people you like. Similar to “I’m In Like With You”, users are periodically asked quiz questions by the site, such as “Do you like sports?” or “Do you have a teddy bear?”. Your answers to the questions coupled with your profile info and whose profiles you view help Redux recommend people like yourself with on a percentage compatibility score.
The algorithm isn’t “dumb” or based purely on matching up people based on answering questions the same. It actually learns what properties signify compatibility based on how people use the site and takes special care to match people up with niche interests (something Shirazi calls the “Anomaly Filter”). For instance, people who play sports will probably get along with people who watch sports. From there, the system could discover that people who play sports get along well with people who enjoy action films or any number of other attributes.
Finally, Redux closes the loop by encouraging compatible people to hang out at any of the thousands of public events they’ve pulled from sites like Upcoming.
While I have yet to make a friend through a random conversation over a website, there are clearly plenty of people who do. Members of social networking sites frequently drop a line to someone they might like to strike up a conversation. A service like Redux that matches based on personality makes the initial impetus behind the introduction more than superficial.
But Darian doesn’t think that Redux is necessarily about finding a life long friend. There has been a growing interest in personalizing the web and recommendations from real people are often the ones users trust. That’s why Redux will be distributing its service as a platform by the end of this year. Websites will be able to integrate with Redux to power all kinds of people driven recommendations. It seems like a smart move, because I can’t see most people logging on every day just to chat with friends and answer some questions. The context of another site can make the process more compelling.
Redux was created by the team behind Flick.IM and is funded by $1.65 million from investors including Peter Thiel.
I wanna be Chris Hansen’s friend. That guy hangs out with the hottest chicks.
Oh sorry, was that sexist? Cause if it wasn’t I could reword it so it was.
Are people really that desperate for friends? I guess I just don’t get it.
Stewart Alsop is on there (VC from http://www.alsop-louie.com/)? Looks like he’s funding it too.
Darian you are so FIRED!
I find myspace and other “friend collection systems” to be sad and this even sadder… who cares if you have 100 or 10 friends… like many things in life, it comes down to quality. I have a quick idea, just sort “friends” by profession, doctors like doctors, lawyers like lawyers and people without friends like other people without friends. No need for complex algorithms there.
Jon
http://woodmarvels.com - Create Unique Memories
Another social network/recommendation/dating/whateveryoucanthinkof site?
Darian, wasn’t this supposed to be about facial recognition?
The question is…do you really want to discover them? Seriously though, it sounds and looks more like a dating site.
@WebSide Ventures — “desparate” is not really the point. Most people like to meet new people, but not everyone is outgoing or has a good network to draw from. We look at the behavior of folks on MySpace and other sites based on a social graph and see lots of “random” friending as a means of meeting new people. We’re merely trying to give people better ways to discover people they will want to get to know.
@Benoit — Alsop-Louie is one of our investors, but Gilman Louie has the Board seat, not Stewart.
@Jon — Don’t mistake your own life for that of most people. Redux is not really concerned with quantity over quality — quite the opposite. The point of People Discovery is finding relevance rather than doing the shotgun approach that is required in social networking sites if you want to meet new people.
Nathan (VP Marketing, Redux)
Basically, if you need to use this site you don’t have game.
But, we live in a web 2.0 world with geeks, so maybe it will be a hit…ya okay
Another interesting idea
http://www.yupnup.com
Adrian… looks like you’re the smartest one in the room. There are still plenty of people who would like to meet someone they have things in common with, and maybe end up dating that person, but wouldn’t want to use a dating website.
Everyone knows people like that… now if this technology actually has a smart algorithm and can be used on other sites… that is golden. That is on the user side.
Now for the money side.. um, you can’t get much better targeting for advertising than having a great grasp on what users like. Much better information than demographics… That also, is golden.
Now if you don’t mind, I’m off to make some friends, hopefully with benefits.
“We look at the behavior of folks on MySpace and other sites based on a social graph”
If I hear social graph one more time I’m gonna kill myself.
@Social Graph — AMEN! The social graph assumes the best connections are already made, and sharing meta data with people you already know is limited. Redux aims to create new connections through a specialized collaborative filter, so we’re not terribly concerned with the social graph. But, please don’t kill yourself
This is interesting indeed, tons of people have been randomly friending me on facebook because of similar interest or just because we are both members of certain groups. If executed correctly this site has quite some potential.
Wonderful webservice!
Att,
Marcelo
My social graph is huge…. with all these sites my ancestors will be thrilled to know
All the friends and acquaintances of my lifetime (Facebook), all the music i ever listen to( Last.FM ), my favortie movies( flixster ), tv shows(hulu), how I slept and what time i woke up (Sleep.FM), all my fantasy friends (adult freind finder), all about the pets (dogsters) I owned and loved…..
LoL - do we really need to know and index all this info?
test
I’m glad I’m not the only one with this reaction. Yes, Nathan, we understand marketing spin.
Whatever happened to serendipity. This is too contrived. What happened to bars, festivals, libraries, and other community events.
Nathan said it best, “…not everyone is outgoing or has a good network to draw from. ”
The prosecution rests.
P.S. I like the long-term growth strategy a tad more.
@Nathan
your idea is pretty interesting, in that as people begin to join multiple social networks there is an importance to understanding what relationships make sense, and what doesnt. Its not necessarily about growing your list of friends, but separating the wheat from the chaff, but understanding the relevance that online relationship has TO ME.
am very interested in seeing what this develops into. It is another piece of the pie in what I think will be the “thing of 2008″:
- social aggregation (http://www.spokeo.com)
- relationship recommendations (maybe you guys)
- content discovery (http://www.lijit.com)
“Want to know when we’re ready to show Redux to the world? Enter your email below.” I also hate to see this kind pre-ad review like since spiralfrog.
Techcrunch’s taste went down and down.
Hotopeople launched earlier than Redux, and its idea seems to be better than Redux.
Techcrunch should improve now.
So… it’s OKCupid.com, but with less emphasis on dating?
Seriously. It’s exactly the same thing. Though I’m not sure from the article if they’re smart enough to have the users generate the questions, like OkCupid does. Not to mention the heavily viral quizzes.
You want to find people with similar interests?
Have a look at http://www.simpy.com/user/otis for an example (look for “Similar Users” half-way down the page). Just upload your bookmarks and 3 hours later you’ll see a list of people with similar interests (assuming their bookmarks indicate their interests, which is a decent assumption).
This functionality has been available on Simpy.com for a few years now, while Redux is only collecting people’s emails at this point….
Hi!
This should be really fun, great idea.
looking forward to seeing the results … congrats
The Myers-Briggs test? That oughta be interesting. It doesn’t really cover common interests and frames of reference, though, does it?
would recommendations associate people across communities? For example, suggest a new friend who is on netflix to someone who is not on netflix but is on flixster or say dogster? I would love the opml houses (eg google, bloglines) and comment indexing companies like bigswerve to partner up here.
why would they care if any of you guys think it’s “sad” or whatever?
truth is, the world is full of shy, lonely people. that’s who they’re marketing to anyways.
oh and myers briggs is a smart idea. although it’s hard to make an accurate test…
I really think this is great, new approach and outlook on the web…! This is going to be a great success, great job, I hope you guys prosper as usual.
I really think this is great, new approach and outlook on the web…! This is going to be a great success, great job, I hope you guys prosper as usual.