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At this point, Netflix is almost like the streaming company that acquired a plastic disc company, and hasn't quite gotten around to killing it yet. Search also

by ipsin 11y ago

At this point, Netflix is almost like the streaming company that acquired a plastic disc company, and hasn't quite gotten around to killing it yet. Search also feels biased towards streaming, to the point where it will suggest several "not even close" streaming movies before the literal title that you're searching for.

deleted 11y ago
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jim-greer 11y ago
> Search also feels biased towards streaming, to the point where it will suggest several "not even close" streaming movies before the literal title that you're searching for. This is not true if you have a DVD plan. There's a big "add" button next to the dvd-only results. http://i.imgur.com/oSU4Yzh.png http://i.imgur.com/oSU4Yzh.png I agree with your main point though.
MichaelGG 11y ago
I think Netflix intentionally provides bad suggestions. The last week I've tried several times to use Netflix. In each instance, I spend 10+ minutes trying to find something, fail, and give up. Netflix "recommends" stuff that it rates at 1 star. Terrible junk. And they don't even have the decency to make it easy to see 3rd party ratings or trailers. And if you start something that sucks, it's hard to tell it to stop showing it to you. They also removed the easy way to mark "Not Interested". It's become a much worse experience, perhaps bounded by their limited catalog. They must know this. They must see the stats on how long people spend browsing vs cancellation rates.
- nkurz 11y ago
  I'm also confused by their approach to interface. Perhaps there is some hidden benefit to having people accidentally start watching films when they just want to learn more about it, even if they immediately stop? Maybe it somehow satisfies some arcane distribution requirement in a way that saves them licensing fees on the more popular films? Maybe it helps some department improve some metric that some other department cares about?

by ipsin 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

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jim-greer 11y ago

> Search also feels biased towards streaming, to the point where it will suggest several "not even close" streaming movies before the literal title that you're searching for. This is not true if you have a DVD plan. There's a big "add" button next to the dvd-only results. http://i.imgur.com/oSU4Yzh.png http://i.imgur.com/oSU4Yzh.png I agree with your main point though.

MichaelGG 11y ago

I think Netflix intentionally provides bad suggestions. The last week I've tried several times to use Netflix. In each instance, I spend 10+ minutes trying to find something, fail, and give up. Netflix "recommends" stuff that it rates at 1 star. Terrible junk. And they don't even have the decency to make it easy to see 3rd party ratings or trailers. And if you start something that sucks, it's hard to tell it to stop showing it to you. They also removed the easy way to mark "Not Interested". It's become a much worse experience, perhaps bounded by their limited catalog. They must know this. They must see the stats on how long people spend browsing vs cancellation rates.

nkurz 11y ago
I'm also confused by their approach to interface. Perhaps there is some hidden benefit to having people accidentally start watching films when they just want to learn more about it, even if they immediately stop? Maybe it somehow satisfies some arcane distribution requirement in a way that saves them licensing fees on the more popular films? Maybe it helps some department improve some metric that some other department cares about?