google reader recommendations are broken
02 Mar 2011Maybe it’s just mine, or some facet of the bizarreness of things I read that makes it impossible to predict, but I have found google reader recommendations to be increasingly broken over the last 6 months. Possibly this has something to do with a botched migration to google apps, or some way in which the recommendation engine fails for google apps accounts.
Things that I read on google reader:
- Nashville political blogs
- libertarian/individualist anarchist/mutualist blogs
- handful of political/world news sites
- photography blogs
- food/restaurant blogs
- a handful of hiphop music blogs
- a handful of friends’ blogs
What google reader has been recommending to me lately:
- home craft/decorating blogs
- Fashion blogs (i initially thought this was a stretched (but failed) assumption that because i liked photography I also liked .. fashion? but now i think it’s just a general screwup a la the rest)
- weirdly hyperlocal blog posts from cities I don’t live in (Dayton, chicago, portland, etc) about New Things in that city
- stupid cat memes
- celebrity gossip/news
- news about android or iphones
- christian mommy blogs
- and now, this morning.. religious antichoice abortion blog posts
That is – basically, my “recommendations” appear to be a nonsensical/random slice of the Internet in general. Certainly not tailored to me, and almost bizarrely antithetical to anything I’d ever want to read. No amount of clicking “Not interested” seems to be making any difference. I also still don’t have any “Recommended Sources” at all – leading me to think something is just busted.
Anyone else seeing this? It’s sad, because I used to like the recommended items feature quite a bit.