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Google Prediction API

code.google.com

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Re: Google Prediction API

#7
post #4

Are there any (preferably FOSS) libraries that does anything like this?

In Python there is a wonderful library called the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) available free and open source at http://www.nltk.org/.

With NLTK you can build classifiers, decision trees, and train/predict with bayesian classifiers similarly to Google's Prediction API examples. It's pretty easy to get started, and it's code that you run locally, so there is no network traffic.

I use it on http://www.protopub.com for classifying rss feed stories based on user feedback, so Protopub can recommend future stories that you might like. NLTK is far easier than rolling your own classifiers, but even that is not too difficult. See the O'Reilly book Programming Collective Intelligence.

Re: Google Prediction API

#10
This is easily the most interesting announcement so far. Machine learning has so many applications, but its use is constrained by the high barriers to entry. Recommendation engines, for example, are huge sales drivers, but few among even the largest ecommerce stores use them. A simple prediction interface that's built on the ML expertise at Google is a win for everyone.
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