There’s a rumor floating around that eBay is trying to offload the webpage ‘recommendation engine’ StumbleUpon, which eBay bought for $75 million in early 2007.

Evidently, eBay hasn’t been able to integrate StumbleUpon into its business. But will it get a price anywhere close to the $75 million it paid?

Source: Frederic Lardinois, “Rumor: EBay Trying to Sell StumbleUpon”, ReadWriteWeb, September 19, 2008

The word is that Digg will soon be introducing a “Recommendation Engine” to suggest new stories to users based on their interests and preferences.

TechCrunch – which has obtained access to leaked screen shots of the engine – reports that recommendations of upcoming stories will be made to you (as a user of Digg) based on diggs from other users who tend to vote in a similar way to you.

You will be able to see just how like-minded you and these other users are by having access to a chart that shows various “compatibility” percentages. By clicking on any of these other users you’ll be able to see the overlap between what they’ve voted on in the last 30 days and what you’ve voted on. You’ll also be able to sort the recommended stories based on most diggs, most matches, and most recent. And yes, you’ll also be able to remove users if you don’t want to receive recommendations based on their voting behavior.

From a user’s point of view, and assuming it matches up to its promise, I think the Recommendation Engine will be a fantastic addition to Digg. From a marketer’s point of view, I am also in favor…

On the one hand, the Recommendation Engine may limit your ability to get new marketing news stories out to Digg users who have shown no previous interest in your kind of news stories… on the other hand, you’re more likely to get your news out to exactly those people who ARE interested in what you have to say. On balance, it seems to sit well with the idea of getting your message out to your most qualified prospects.

Source: Michael Arrington, “Leaked Screen Shots Of Mythical Digg Recommendation Engine”, TechCrunch, June 30, 2008