22 November 2007

Six Degrees of Related Videos

So, doing research for a project, I go to YouTube, hoping to find (in this case) the title sequence to the 1966 film The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! Although not the title sequence, one user has put together a montage of the film's various moments.

The point here is not about the film but what's going on in the lower right corner of yr browser window: Related Videos. Related? Granted a good percentage have "russian" in the title or description...but I ask you, what algorithm connects The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! with Keira Knightly at the Atonement premiere? Or The Village People? Or this video?

I'm not being facetious here. Maybe it's me. I just don't see the logic. But I'd seriously like to understand the chain, the "six degrees" if you will.

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