Question - Out of collaborative filtering and content-based filtering, which one is considered better, and why?
Answer -
Content-based filtering is considered to be better than collaborative filtering for generating recommendations. It does not mean that collaborative filtering generates bad recommendations.
However, as collaborative filtering is based on the likes and dislikes of other users we cannot rely on it much. Also, users’ likes and dislikes may change in the future.
For example, there may be a movie that a user likes right now but did not like 10 years ago. Moreover, users who are similar in some features may not have the same taste in the kind of content that the platform provides.
In the case of content-based filtering, we make use of users’ own likes and dislikes that are much more reliable and yield more positive results. This is why platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify, etc. make use of content-based filtering for generating recommendations for their users.