http://boomtrain.com/how-chow-com-increased-engagement-by-over-250-with-predictive-marketing/
The self-aggrandizement puts Trump to shame, but clearly all concerned have happily chugged the Kool-Aid.
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I could say a lot about that propagana piece but I don’t have the energy so I will just leave it with 
I think I asked this on Chowhound , Has anybody ever used the Chow part of the site ? I believe the replies came up empty . To me that’s what Chowhound turned into is Chow . Advertising and a bunch of useless trendy recipes .
The only aspect of Chow I ever found of interest were a shortlived video series of interviews - called the Obsessives iirc. Those interviewed were interesting & knowledgeable. The series was very well done. Now it is buried away and next to impossible to find.
The rest of chow was simply inane.
I never use chow. I’m honestly not clear what the article you linked is talking about. Summary in lay-persons terms? I also never get email from chow/chowhound, I don’t know if it’s something in the settings, or if they have a really old email address for me that they’ve been sending spam and reprimands to all these years…
In years past, a writer would summarize a selection of regional Chowhound posts and created a periodic digest. CBS stopped using human to produce digests— they now use an automated system that e-mails people a list of a few posts, allegedly catered to each user’s interests.
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Never used Chow. They pop up in my emails every once in awhile.
So what they are bragging about is that more people click through to chow via those emails? And that increases ad revenue or something else? How nice for them.
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I’ve never used CHOW except a few times looking at recipes. But it’s also why Chow.com fell by the wayside and Chowhound came back as the “main” part of the site.
Cracks me up when Boomtrain says they’re “the only marketing platform born from machine intelligence.” - Ummm, no. They’re doing the same thing my company does and has been doing since its original incarnation in 1998 (and our current incarnation that began in 2009). They focus the marketing to you based on your online habits. (although my company does a lot more). Facebook does the same thing with their FB Analytics. Anyone who thinks they’re invisible online is fooling themselves.
The “click-throughs” is what generates those “higher engagement percentages.” @Babette - Yes, THAT is what they wanted when they revamped the site - increasing ad revenue. They wanted more eyes on the page, but don’t seem to care about keeping long-time users.
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Erica,
The article by Boomtrain sounds like all of the current presidential candidates in the USA…
“Look at what I have done, my record, my accomplishments”…
Self promotion sounds as in this case that Boomtrain needs some good PR itself…
I have used Chow before, but not very often at all.
I did watch “Supertaster” (James Norton) videos more than a few times. So.
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I really don’t think anything can put Trump to shame…
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I preferred Supertaster in the pre-video prose years and was always sorry it turned into a video series. Also I always got a huge laugh out of Helena Whatshernames beyond - ridiculous etiquette column. Chow also had some very nice vegetarian recipes. And clearly Chow never loved me best, since I (blessedly)never get any emails from them.
Glad to know that the fools who killed CH are so sure of their own genius.
