BREAKING: WALMART HALTS ALL DVD REFERENCES AFTER PLANET OF THE APES FIASCO

[Halliburton]

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2006/01/05/ap2431560.html?partner=alerts

There's Walmart for you. Some recommendation system they got there.

:wow:

[sabra]

1. the power of the blogs!

it's amazing isn't it?

[Carla in Ca]

12. Amazing...and fast!

If only we could see more R's getting indicted at that speed.

[AspenRose]

2. Good work, y'all!

"Wal-Mart moved swiftly after a link to the page for "Planet of the Apes" began circulating on the Internet."

[MissB]

11. It was tossed around this afternoon

on a parenting message board. I'm not sure where the poster of the thread on that board found it, but it was pretty appalling to see.

[HR_Pufnstuf]

3. ha ha ha.

Not so funny anymore aye Mall-Wart?

[rodeodance]

4. whow, wonder how this happened. not good.

By MARCUS KABEL , 01.05.2006, 09:14 PM





Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is shutting down the system that creates movie recommendations on its shopping Web site after it linked a "Planet of the Apes" DVD to films about famous black Americans, including Martin Luther King Jr.

Wal-Mart said Thursday it had removed what it called the "offensive combinations" from a walmart.com page advertising a boxed DVD set, "Planet of the Apes: The Complete TV Series."

Under a "similar items" section, the DVD set's page linked shoppers to four films about the lives of King, actress Dorothy Dandridge, boxer Jack Johnson and singer Tina Turner. Wal-Mart later altered the page to link with television show DVDs.

The world's largest retailer said the software that generates links for shoppers from one movie to others of similar interest would be shut down. All cross references would be removed as soon as technically possible until the system can be fixed, Wal-Mart said.

[Journeyman]

7. Somebody gamed the system, would be my guess. . .

from either inside or outside the firewall -- inside, bad for wallmart; outside, bad for a lot of companies.

[Infomaniac]

9. Inside Job?

Would it be traceable to an employee or group of employees?

[merwin]

5. The recommendation system is probably fine.

It's most likely just a coincidence that people who bought Planet of the Apes also bought films about famous black people. The recommendation systems are typically done automatically by what people purchase.

That being said, I hate Wal Mart and think they should not have pulled the recommendation system.

(on edit)
After seeing the screenshot, It looks like it could have been a manipulation of the system... just like Google was manipulated to produce 1) The white house webpage 2) Michael Moore's webpage when you type in "Miserable Failure".

[Catherine Vincent]

13. I disagree with that.

[Catherine Vincent]

6. Check this link with the screen-grab from EarlG:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=61145&mesg_id=61221

[mourningdove92]

8. oh man, I just can't stop laughing.

Walmart! they so deserve this.

I was boycotting Walmart, just for general purposes, like a good liberal, when my significant other ended up working there.

[MissB]

10. How odd.

[chat_noir]

14. screen grab

[LincolnMcGrath]

15. And yet sadly, some folks were right there to defend china-mart.

[Loonman]

16. Talk to the Cordon Negro wine people next

Those fucking racist assholes!