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"This post is part of Mashable\u2019s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.\nName: Inveni\nQuick Pitch: Inveni is a discovery engine that gives highly personalized recommendations based on a user's universal taste profile and recommendations from friends.\nGenius Idea: What movie should we rent? What should we queue up on Netflix? Is that new television show worth watching? These are questions that plague singles, couples and families the world round. Newly launched startup Inveni exists to weave the interests we've expressed elsewhere on the web into a fabric of intelligent movie and television recommendations.\nInveni's technology attempts to build personal taste profiles for members and then use that data to predict other things they might like. Inveni's recommendation engine also factors your friends and other member behaviors in to the equation with the hopes of making better, more personalized product recommendations. The company is starting with movies and television, but will eventually graduate to other product areas.\nInveni's recommendation engine kicks in to high gear the minute you begin the setup process. Right away, you can connect your Netflix, Rotten Tomatoes, Flixster, Fandago, Best Buy, Criticker, IMDB and Movie Web accounts to import your preexisting movie and television show ratings. You can also specify your movie and TV preferences around genres, time periods and ratings (PG, PG-13, R etc.).\nAfter the on-boarding process, which admittedly is quite fun, Inveni will drop you off at the site's homepage where you can view recently recommended movies and rate them, save them, recommend them and help the system positively identify similar titles. If a selection is available to watch on Netflix, you can click the watch button to dive right in. The homepage also highlights the most saved titles across the site and movies currently in theaters.\nEach title has its own page. Members can check out informative details, leave comments and vote yes or no on similar suggestions.\nThe privately funded company currently takes the form of a web service, alpha iPhone application (you will have to inquire for access) and Firefox plugin. In initial tests, Inveni had moments of genius and other instances of poor taste. We do suspect that the recommendation engine improves with additional use, and we certainly found the service to have features that may hook members and encourage them to come back the next time they're in the mood to watch a flick.\nWe'd be remiss if we didn't point out that recommendation engines are a dime dozen. We are living in the age of the semantic web; recommendations are often already integrated in to a number of web services and mobile applications, especially the slew of entertainment checkin apps. Inveni will really have to deliver the best recommendations at the exact right time to make an impact and stand out from the rest.\n\n\n\n\nImage courtesy of amanky, Flickr\nSponsored by Microsoft BizSpark\nBizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/10/02/inveni/>