I need to go on holiday – somewhere that I know the food will be good , somewhere with a kids club, and somewhere not too far from the airport.

‘Has anyone got any recommendations?’ you may ask a set of four friends at the pub.

“Don’t have kids”,  “I stayed at this brilliant Michelin starred castle in France a few years ago where the food was fantastic”, “ Not too far from the airport – the Greek islands are best for that” - friends recommendations when they are culled from a sample of four people who you have the occasional once a month outing with, are probably not going to come up with the right answer.

However, broaden that circle of friends to 10 or 20, and the chances are that you will get a variety of different answers each of which ticks all your boxes. It’s because we tend to have friends, who are vaguely similar to us and hence have the same requirements as us if you broaden the net beyond your immediate drinking pals.

Yet this is a group who are rarely consulted on such things as the best place to go on holiday. Instead we take the view of a travel agent or Google or some random reviewer, who has posted something up on TripAdvisor. Lots of money is then invested on the basis of someone you have never come across, telling you what you should do.

Which is slightly insane. In fact, very insane.

The recommendations you get from any search engine is skewed by a whole number of factors – all based on an inamimate object processing data. So last year I was looking for a digital camera to buy someone for Christmas. And indeed I duly bought one – that at the time was high spec, good value and I was happy with my purchase. For the last 6 months, my inbox has been clogged with offers , from the retailer I bought it from for better quality, better value digital cameras that have undermined my purchase decision. I now feel conned.

I really don’t trust computers as a source of intelligent recommendation – is it any wonder?

I do trust my broad circle of friends though – human beings who are concerned that they don’t give you duff information.

‘Better the devil you know’.

There are certain friends, who I would go to for certain recommendations with a 100% certainty that their recommendation on a particular subject area was going to be brilliant. On another subject area, they might be terrible or just very different to what you are looking for. The brain is far better at filtering stuff than any collection of data – we are after all humans.

James.

(The power of the recommendation of something that is so good, you actively don't want to recommend it)

When you have a secret, other people don’t like it if you don’t share that secret with them. They feel alienated.

On the other hand if you do share a secret with someone, they feel privileged.

When someone says someone is a good friend, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ve had to donate a kidney to you, it often means that they have just been really helpful to you.

One of the best ways to show your friendship is to let people in on a secret. If we forget the type of secrets that will earn you thousands of pounds in the News of the World, the next best kind of secret is the secret place that you find – it might be for a weekend away or a holiday villa – but one that you just don’t want to tell everyone about, for fear of making it too popular.

Those recommendations are very special and you sort of enter into a secret pact not to tell anyone else about it.

It’s not like recommending Virgin Media for broadband (if you live in a fibre zone) or recommending North Face waterproofs ( because they are the only ones that are truly waterproof), this is about recommending something that is in limited supply. When it comes to hotels or villas or a restaurant where you can always get a table at the last minute, your selfish side doesn’t want to spread the word too much about how good it is. But as a sign of true friendship, there is nothing more powerful.

Lovethis.com is the place for such a secret – only your friends will see it.

Of course, if you have recommended the ultimate place to conduct an illicit affair, posting it up on Lovethis.com, may not be the wisest thing as it could get just a little embarrassing, but any other recommendation is likely to go down a storm with your friends.

Secrets are very powerful.

James

P.S. Read the latest thoughts from LoveThis Founder, Alexis Dormandy...

One of the truest cliches is that, when it comes to fashion, men and women don’t understand each other.

If you ask a member of the opposite sex for a recommendation on which of the latest fashions you should buy, chances are you will get a lukewarm response akin to asking an anarchist whether they enjoyed the royal wedding.

To generalise even further, women like to shop in the company of other women, they love to try lots of things on and are eager for the opinion of others in helping them make their decision – it is a social occasion rather than a practical exercise to find things to wear. Men tend to get frustrated if they can’t find what they want within seconds of walking in to their chosen shop and definitely do not want to get the opinion of their mates as to whether they should buy something or not.

In fashion though there is so much choice – even if men tend to want to buy a newer version of what they are currently wearing – so how do people make their choice?

The average high street is stuffed full of shops offering seemingly unlimited fashion options, yet window shopping is only one means of deciding what is going to make it in to this season’s wardrobe.

A mass of newspapers and magazines report on fashion with glee and in lots of detail. Editors of fashion magazines are celebrities in their own right. The gossip magazines are as much about fashion as they are about gossip.

In short, fashion is incredibly important.

Also important are recommendations. Particularly given the bewildering number of options available. The Telegraph has introduced an I-Spied section on its website, which is effectively a tiny online shop, with the journalists pick of the day, or week's, items. You can also find these recommendations on LoveThis. Quality vs quantity.

Even better is to get this type of expert advice and the advice of your trusted friends, which of course, you can get from LoveThis. Just don’t ask your boyfriend or your husband, even if they are a trusted friend.

James.

P.S. - The rest of the LoveThis team share their thoughts on the social recommendations space at blog.lovethis.com

When BBC Radio 6 was saved from the chop after an impressive campaign by fans and presenters, one of the key reasons was cited as the station’s reputation for playing the best new music around. Less constrained by the larger stations adherence to playlists that require certain songs to be flogged to death, at last there was a station that really did concentrate on the best new music.

But what is best in this context?

Music is highly subjective and therefore it is almost impossible to determinebest. 'Most popular' ends up with such classics as Bob the Builder/ Britney Spears/ Cheryl Cole and the like, none of which ever make it into any respected music aficionado's top 1000, let alone their top ten. X Factor rules the charts immediately after the programme’s run has finished but then most of the ‘artists’ disappear from view quicker than a dewdrop in the desert. The Brits, with the benefit of a music industry panel, has also come up with some strange choices when choosing the best. Paul Weller is nominated as best male year after year, even if his output is one average song that doesn’t trouble the top 20 charts.

The truth is that music preference is as individual as fingerprints. At the same time, people are constantly on the lookout for music they like, even if it is something they have never heard before. Radio stations tend to play the most popular choices as defined by an increasingly small pool of buyers, so unless you listen to the specialist shows, are rarely that useful for adding new classics to your collection.

That’s why it is useful to know someone who is passionate about music and has similar tastes to you. That way you will find the best new music without having to do the extensive research that your music mad friend has probably (willingly) done.

Sharing playlists on Spotify is great but also wouldn’t it be good if you could have access to all the best new music as recommended for by your friends?

That’s what Lovethis provides. How else would you be able to discover tracks like “Total control” by the Motels (admittedly not that new)?

Because the other thing about the phrase ‘best new music’ is that ‘new’ really means music you have never heard before rather than music that has only just been released.

James.

P.S. - The rest of the LoveThis team share their thoughts on the social recommendations space at blog.lovethis.com

When you explain the purpose of LoveThis, most people nod in appreciation of the potential benefits. 'That’s clever...nice idea...I like it' is a typical response.

However, if you sit next to someone filling in their first recommendations, you will see a really animated response. People really like to share their knowledge and once they’ve shared one recommendation , they want to share another ...and then another.

So could LoveThis become a replacement for less healthy cravings? The scientific answer is probably ‘yes’.

The simple act of giving a recommendation is probably the easiest way of achieving a feeling of self-worth. Self-worth, according to Wikipedia, is a basic human need and requires constant reinforcement to maintain a high level of self –worth. One of the realities about living in the rat race is that chances to reinforce your self-worth are few and far between.

So giving recommendations is good for you.

Clearly what’s even better is if you are looking for something and you can find a high quality recommendation really quickly and easily. But it’s not so addictive is it?

Thankfully with LoveThis, you can give and receive.

P.S. - The rest of the LoveThis team share their thoughts on the social recommendations space at blog.lovethis.com