15. An apparatus for selecting items to recommend to a target user, the apparatus comprising: means for providing a user interface configured to enable a user of an electronic catalog of items to create textual tags for categorizing items represented in the electronic catalog and to associate particular tags with particular items in the electronic catalog, said means for providing comprising programmed computer hardware; means for programmatically identifying at least one tagged item in the electronic catalog, the at least one tagged item selected by a target user, said means for identifying comprising programmed computer hardware, without receiving a designation from the target user of the at least one tagged item; means for selecting one or more user-defined textual tags associated with the at least one tagged item subsequent to the identification of the at least one tagged item by at least identifying a threshold number of most popular tags assigned to the at least one tagged item, without any input from the target user, each tag comprising a descriptor selectively associated with the at least one tagged item by one or more users via the user interface, said means for selecting one or more user-defined textual tags comprising programmed computer hardware; means for searching the electronic catalog, subsequent to the selection of the one or more user-defined textual tags, using the one or more tags as keywords to identify a corresponding set of related items, said means for searching comprising programmed computer hardware; means for selecting at least a portion of the set of related items to provide as recommendations to the target user, said second means for selecting at least a portion of the set of related items comprising programmed computer hardware; and means for outputting the recommendations with associated textual reasons for recommending the items.
15. An apparatus for selecting items to recommend to a target user, the apparatus comprising: means for providing a user interface configured to enable a user of an electronic catalog of items to create textual tags for categorizing items represented in the electronic catalog and to associate particular tags with particular items in the electronic catalog, said means for providing comprising programmed computer hardware; means for programmatically identifying at least one tagged item in the electronic catalog, the at least one tagged item selected by a target user, said means for identifying comprising programmed computer hardware, without receiving a designation from the target user of the at least one tagged item; means for selecting one or more user-defined textual tags associated with the at least one tagged item subsequent to the identification of the at least one tagged item by at least identifying a threshold number of most popular tags assigned to the at least one tagged item, without any input from the target user, each tag comprising a descriptor selectively associated with the at least one tagged item by one or more users via the user interface, said means for selecting one or more user-defined textual tags comprising programmed computer hardware; means for searching the electronic catalog, subsequent to the selection of the one or more user-defined textual tags, using the one or more tags as keywords to identify a corresponding set of related items, said means for searching comprising programmed computer hardware; means for selecting at least a portion of the set of related items to provide as recommendations to the target user, said second means for selecting at least a portion of the set of related items comprising programmed computer hardware; and means for outputting the recommendations with associated textual reasons for recommending the items. 23. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the at least one tagged item selected by the target user comprises an item tagged by the target user.