Most recommender systems use Collaborative Filtering or
Content-based methods to predict new items of interest for
a user. While both methods have their own advantages, individually
they fail to provide good recommendations in many
situations. Incorporating components from both methods, a
hybrid recommender system can overcome these shortcomings.
In this paper, we present an elegant and effective framework
for combining content and collaboration. Our approach
uses a content-based predictor to enhance existing user data,
and then provides personalized suggestions through collaborative
filtering. We present experimental results that show
how this approach, Content-Boosted Collaborative Filtering,
performs better than a pure content-based predictor, pure collaborative
filter, and a naive hybrid approach.