Perfect Match

My friend Nathan Burke recently began work at a Boston-area startup that definitely has me intrigued. Founded in part by Robert and Jonathan Kraft (owners of the New England Patriots) and launching next week, the company, matchmine, calls itself a “media discovery platform,” matching users of specific interests to media they may enjoy: movies, music, news, etc.

It’s an interesting concept I am not familiar with, short of all those emails I get from Amazon pushing every fantasy book in the genre at me each time I order the latest Harry Potter (for the last time, Amazon, I don’t want to read about the dragons!).

From matchmine’s website:

matchmine is a media discovery platform, meaning we help match video, audio and textual content with you based on a sophisticated understanding of your personal tastes. We get to know what you like, and then find the movies, video, music, news and other content you’d love to find yourself, if only you had the time. Kind of like having a best friend whose full time gig is to send you great stuff.

Even more intriguing is the methodology behind the site, which goes way above this math-class-reject’s head. The company seeks to use methods usually applied to genetic engineering (of all things) to track and download personal preferences on a variety of topics and translate them into media “matches”:

The biggest challenge to applying it in a practical application was the sheer number of dimensions required to represent something as complex as a person’s likes and dislikes in a concise and understandable manner. The answer: a combination of dynamic programming and n-space mathematics. It was hardly easy, but a year and a million dollars later, the basic science underneath the matchmine system was ready to go, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Disclosure: I had to read the “About” section a couple different times; but despite the complexity of the concept, I’m definitely going to follow the company’s progress as they gear up to launch. This could be an interesting new addition to the 2.0 community. As demands on our attention continue to ramp up (I’ve noticed many links and references to Steve Rubel’s “Attention Crash” post lately, and there’s definitely a reason), wouldn’t it be convenient to let a program help you with tonight’s DVD rental decision?

For more information, the company also has a blog, available here.

Technorati tags: matchmine, Steve Rubel, Nathan Burke