26. The method of claim 16 , wherein the step of rating new items based on previous explicit user ratings of items comprises: determining features that correlate to the user's tastes and preferences, based on previous ratings of items by the user; optionally, presenting the user with a list of said features allowing the user to interactively modify the list; and inputting the features to the second predictive algorithm, wherein the second predictive algorithm rates items not previously rated.
16. A method of predicting items of media content likely to appeal to a user, based on the user's preferences, comprising: rating a new item based on earlier ratings of items by the user that correlate highly with the new item according to a first predictive algorithm when the new item has earlier ratings of items by the user that correlate highly with the new item, the first predictive algorithm comprising a collaborative filtering algorithm; rating the new item, when the new item has not been rated by the first predictive algorithm, according to a second predictive algorithm, the second algorithm comprising a content-based adaptive modeling algorithm, based on ratings of specific features by the user describing the item, wherein at least a portion of the features have previously been explicitly rated by the user; for a new item whose features have not been previously rated by the user, rating the new item based on previous explicit ratings of items by the user, according to the adaptive modeling algorithm, wherein the adaptive modeling algorithm generates implicit ratings of features based on the explicit ratings of items by the user; and allowing the user to correct a rating for an item generated by the first predictive algorithm or the second predictive algorithm in order to obtain generated item ratings more in line with what the user expects; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.