Even though the subtitle read "building smart web 2.0 applications", it's about more than that. I'm less interested in building websites and all the more data mining of existing sources. And I was not let down.
Toby really manages to explain the underlying concepts in an accessible way. Which important because much of it is based on methods of statistical analysis. He covers discovering groups, searching, ranking, optimization, document filtering, decision trees, price models or genetic algorithms. The book explains how to implement Simulated Annealing, k-Nearest Neighbors, Bayesian Classifier and many more.
Throughout the book, Toby explores various other AI techniques, and explains clearly, how to implement them in Python. One nice touch at the end of the book, was to include a reference to modules used in the book, and to include small usage examples. I was quite pleased by Collective Intelligence, and I would recommend the book to any intermediate to advanced programmer who wants to learn more about AI, and also web specific applications of AI theory. Take a look at the table of contents (it does not list all the algorithms, tho).
All code in the book is written exclusively in Python. Don't worry if you're not familiar with Python. In the introduction there is a short description of the language and the code is usually well explained as well as commented. I use very little Python, but I was still able to follow the code listings.
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