Reference
Glossary
Definitions of terms used in TheKnow. Learn the language of personalized restaurant recommendations.
- 01Taste twin
- The strictest tier of taste match: someone who rates like you, with the same places at the top and bottom and close scores on most of them. It takes at least 8 places in common, a strong pattern, and agreeing within half a point on 60% of them, so twins are rare. A twin who rated a place is named first and marked as your taste twin.
- See also:Taste matchYour people
- 02Taste match
- Someone who rates like you on places you've both rated. It takes at least 5 places in common, and your ratings have to clear the bar: a pattern we're 80% sure isn't chance, or agreeing within half a point on 60% of at least 8 shared places. Each taste match shows a match percentage, how alike you rate: you rank places the same way and score them close. It's the average of pattern (Pearson correlation) and closeness. 'You agree on 7 of 9' counts the places you both rated within half a point.
- See also:Taste twinYour peopleEarly hunchCloseness
- 03Your people
- Your taste matches and taste twins together. Reads from your people are earned: they rest on places you've both rated. People like you with no shared ratings yet give an early hunch instead.
- See also:Taste matchTaste twinEarly hunch
- 04Early hunch
- A read from people like you: people whose stated preferences look like yours, before you share any rated places. They aren't taste matches yet. It says 'People like you like it', 'are mixed' or 'would pass', never a percentage, and sharpens as you rate.
- See also:Taste matchYour people's read
- 05Your people's read
- What your taste matches and twins think of a place you haven't rated. When enough of them rated it (at least two, and their matches have to rest on enough places), the restaurant page shows their score out of 5, weighted toward the people who rate most like you, with words beneath: loved it, liked it, lukewarm, or not into it. Short of that, you see one of them by name and how they rated it, when their ratings are public. Cards say it shorter: 'Your people love it', 'like it', 'are mixed' or 'would pass', with the score and how many people beneath.
- See also:Your peopleAgree
- 066
- A rating that goes past 5. You get six of them, ever: the places you'd stake your name on. When all six are taken, one has to give way before a new place can go to 6.
- See also:Rating scale
- 07Pearson correlation
- The statistical method TheKnow uses to read how your ratings move together: when one of you rates a place highly, does the other? It is one half of the match percentage. The other half is how close your scores are. This is the same technique used in recommendation systems for music, movies, and products.
- See also:Taste matchCloseness
- 08Closeness
- The share of places you both rated where your scores are within half a point. The other half of the match percentage: it catches two people who rank places the same way while one always scores higher.
- See also:Taste matchAgree
- 09Evidence
- How much a taste match rests on, shown as a word: early (5 to 7 places in common), growing (8 to 14) or solid (15 or more). More places in common lifts a taste match up your list and gives it more weight in your people's read.
- See also:Shared placesTaste match
- 11Agree
- Two scores within half a point of each other. Used everywhere: 'You agree on 7 of 9', and 'Your people agree' under your own rating.
- See also:Closeness
- 12Profile tier
- Your profile card's level, set by how much you rate: Standard, then Silver at 15 rated places, Gold at 40, Holographic at 100. Private ratings count. A tier measures how much you rate, not how good your taste is.
- See also:Shared places
- 13Private rating
- A rating only you can see. It isn't shown to anyone and isn't used to find your taste matches. Separately, turning off 'Show my ratings publicly' in Settings hides all your ratings from your profile, while they still help find your taste matches.
- See also:Shared places
- 14Most rated
- A shelf of the places the most people on TheKnow have rated near you, labeled 'Popular here, not a ranking'. A count, never a score.
- See also:Crowd ratings
- 15Rating scale
- 0 to 5 in half points, and up to six places can go to 6. 5 is exceptional, 0 is terrible. Low ratings matter as much as high ones, because they show who shares your taste.
- See also:6
- 16Personalized recommendations
- Suggestions built from what your taste matches love, weighted toward the people who rate most like you and share the most places with you. Two people in the same city can see completely different picks.
- See also:Your people's readTaste match
- 17Crowd ratings
- An average from a large group of reviewers. TheKnow was built as an alternative because an average can't account for your taste. We still show a place's rating count, and its average once enough people rated it, as context; neither sets your score, and neither ranks a place above what your taste matches love. A place the crowd gives 3.5 might be a 5 for you if your taste matches love it.
- See also:Most rated