… TasteKid.
www.tastekid.com is a search engine sight with a twist. Type in a book title, author name, band name, song title, artist name, movie title, etc. and Emmy, the sight’s avatar (I don’t know what else to call her), presents you with a list of recommendations of similar books, movies, bands, and artists, stuff she’s heard about recently (recent searches), and what seems to be popular (popular searches). Next to each entry on each list is a little ? button which if clicked provides more information and (if applicable) a youtube video.
I’ve found TasteKid to be fun and easy to use and extremely helpful. Occasionally some things do go wrong, though. For example, you might get a description that doesn’t fit the title/name that you clicked on (like if the name of the band recommended to you was flower, the description might be wikipedia’s definition of the word flower instead of a description of the band). And once I got a youtube video of a modern remake of the (original) movie that had been recommended to me. But TasteKid has a sweet disclaimer at the bottom of the sight that reads: “I know I’m still making a lot of mistakes and bad recommendations, but I hope I’ll get better and better.” It’s hard to be mad at the occasional bad recommendation and mistake after that :D!
I did a couple of searches and was pretty pleased with the results. Let me share them with you:
I wanted to discover some cool-sounding indie artists. I new the sound I was going for, and the only name I could remember off the top of my head as having that sound was Taken by Trees (which I later learned was a solo project by Victoria Bergsman. I don’t know much about her, but I like her sound.) So, I typed in Taken by Trees and got among other things:
Young Galaxy (wasn’t sure if I liked them)
The Concretes (liked)
Au Revoir Simone (liked)
Azure Ray (liked)
Sunset Rubdown (wasn’t sure if I liked them)
St. Vincent (liked)
Kaki King (liked)
Caribou (wasn’t sure if I liked them)
Yael Naim (already heard her and liked her)
The Microphones (wasn’t sure if I liked them)
Tillie and the wall (liked)
Tokyo police club (wasn’t sure if I liked them)
midlake (wasn’t sure if I liked them)
Of course, I don’t know much about any of these artists / bands / groups yet. I’m planning on researching these guys and seeing if I want to buy any of their music. The ones I liked best I’ll type in and see what they give me.
Next I wanted to find some good 1930’s and 40’s movies, so I typed in Libeled Lady – the title of one of my favorite classic movies starring Mirna Loy and William Powell, two of my favorite actors from that era. These were my suggestions:
My Man Godfrey (Already seen and loved)
The Thin Man (I’ve seen one movie from The Thin Man series and liked it a lot)
Top Hat (looks promising!)
Key Largo (looks promising!)
His Girl Friday (already seen and enjoyed)
The Philidelphia Story (I want to see this one!)
Bringing Up Baby (already seen several years ago)
Roman Holiday (looks promising!)
Vertigo (already seen several years ago)
After that, I did a book search. I typed in North and South, and TasteKid immediately assumed that I meant the movie, not the book, and it gave me a long list of movies. I skipped over those and went directly to the smaller list of recommended books. These are some of them:
Wives and Daughters (already read)
Stepping heavenward (already read)
The Witch of Blackbird Pond (already read)
Freckles (already read)
I did another book search hoping to input a title that TasteKid would recognize as being a book, not a movie. I typed in Jane Eyre, a much beloved gothic era romance. These were some of the recommendations I got:
Sense and Sensibility (already read)
Persuasion (already read)
Northanger Abbey (already read)
Wuthering Heights (want to read!)
Rebecca (want to read!)
Agnes Grey (want to read!)
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (want to read!)
Mansfield Park (already read)
Emma (already read)
North and South (already read)
Pride and Prejudice (already read)
The Woman in White (not sure if I want to read this or not)
Little Women (already read)
The House of Mirth (not sure if I want to read this or not)
Middlemarch: a Study of Provincial Life (not sure if I want to read this or not)
The Phantom of the Opera (want to read!)
Shirley (want to read!)
A Little Princess (already read)
The Secret Garden (not sure if I want to read this or not)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (want to read!)
Anne of Green Gables (already read)
Wives and Daughters (already read)
I then wanted to see what would happen if I typed in an author’s name, so I picked out Agatha Christie – one of my all time favorite authors and definitely my favorite mystery author. These were some of the results:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (I’ve read some of his books and enjoyed them)
Erle Stanley Gardner (hadn’t heard of him, although his wikipedia article made him look promising)
Alistair Maclean (hadn’t heard of him)
Dorothy Sayers (read some of her books and really enjoyed them)
P.G. Wodehouse (never read any of his books, but I’d like to. I have seen Jeeves and Wooster though…)
The Brontes (I’ve only read Jane Eyre by Charlotte)
Like I said earlier, I found TasteKid to be fun, enjoyable, and useful. I was surprised at how accurate many of the suggestions were as I was already familiar with a good half of them – a fact that lent credence to the rest of the suggestions. I’m looking forward to listening to, watching, and reading some of her suggestions – and possibly becoming fans of some of them once I learn more about them.
Did any of these bands/authors/books/etc. on the lists strike a chord with you? If so, I’d love to hear about it! Oh, and if you have suggestions for me, I’d value them even more than those of a (cool and charming) search engine :D.
