Explore or Exploit? Trivago’s ML for New Recommendations

2 years ago thenewstack.io

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The never-ending question: do you continue to “exploit” something that’s already working or “explore” the vast unknown in search for something better? Online travel site https://www.trivago.com/ built a machine learning algorithm to address the explore-exploit dilemma in its accommodation ranking model.

After six months of testing, Trivago added an algorithm to production that favors popular user features on unseen accommodations, which then can be added to the search rankings.

With this approach, users have the benefit of encountering an inventory that will be overall better in the long run.

What is the best way to explore the millions of accommodations so that the best are found and brought to the front of the rankings?

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