Recommendation systems for matching goods and/or services to the preferences of consumers are well known and widely used in internet-based provision of media items. Applications include books, songs, videos and other media items or non-media goods or services such as auctioning, introduction, cars, and houses. Typically such systems rely on matching characteristics of available items with characteristics desired by the consumer. The complexity of such recommendation systems varies widely, from simple search engines based on user specified tags to systems that match based on derived descriptors provided by examples.
Where items are offered at different prices, typically the price is displayed as additional information and plays no part in the recommendation, other than possibly being selected as an allowable price range by the consumer.
There is no account taken in prior art systems of the need to match consumers with items that will present value for money having regard to the preferences of the consumer.