is the latest in a long line of software systems that profess to read your mind, deduce what kind of stuff you like (be it music, books or ladies undergarments) and then offer you up more stuff like it in return.

The best-known example of such a system is probably Amazon.com. "People who bought also bought..." er. A hell of a lot more Moby apparently. Thanks Amazon.

I'll come right out and say it: Amazon ain't never done jack for my musical horizons.

How about you? Have you ever discovered a new band or artist at the recommendation of software?

(Yes, actual software - not a website with humans behind it. Despite lingering rumors that he's really an given life by a gypsies curse, Robert Duffy's recommendations do not count here.)

Hell yeah Amazon has turned me onto music. Of course, it was the UK Amazon and I was going through a Brit-rock phase (Coldplay, Travis, Starsailor). I "discovered" a PHENOMENAL band called The Electric Soft Parade thanks to the UK Amazon. Also discovered Ben & Jason, Ed Harcourt, and others.

i've gotten some good recommendations, but only because i anally rank and eliminate everything they ever recommend that i already have. like 250 of them.

yeah, i was unemployed for a while.

Just learned about a band called AQUALUNG on Amazon.co.uk after looking up some other British artists that I like. Aqualung fits nicely into the Coldplay/Travis/etc. genre.