Social networks vs. personalization

Chris Anderson explains why social networks don't work well for recommendations:

No matter who you are, someone you don't know has found the coolest stuff.

The sad reality is that most of my friends have rotten taste in music (I don't hold it against them), while the music recommendations I actually follow are mostly from people I've never met.

The assumption that there's a correlation between the people I like and the products I like is a flawed one.

Friendships are not a good predictor for recommendations. Your friends aren't clones of you.

For recommendations, reach out to the entire community, including total strangers, to find people with shared interests. There is wisdom in that crowd. All you need to do is find it.