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Once upon a time, Netflix gave away $1 million to contest winners in an attempt to get the best recommendation algorithm they could ( https://en.wikipedia.org/w

Once upon a time, Netflix gave away $1 million to contest winners in an attempt to get the best recommendation algorithm they could ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_Prize https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_Prize ). Now the recommendations are just not that great. It's like they're not trying too hard because they are comfy in their market position. I have never watched any anime at all (really not my thing), but Netflix keeps recommending it to me despite the fact that I haven't taken the bait once. Also it recommends shows to me that it should know through history I've already watched every episode of. Maybe that's on purpose since people watch things again, but I still don't find it useful. Also it leaves stuff in "Continue Watching" for like a month after I give it a thumbs down rating and remove it from "My List". That should be a strong enough signal to act on. And it seems to recommend stuff based on stuff that I only "watched" because it auto-played. That should not be a strong enough signal to act on. The overall point is they seem to have several obvious opportunities to be smarter with content discovery, but they're not taking them.

isbjorn16 7y ago
Wait where's the thumbs down rating?
- forgotmysn 7y ago
  im pretty sure they removed it edit: i could be mistaken though
- saurik 7y ago
  Next to the thumbs up rating (they only have two possible ratings). It might be confusing as you sometimes (at least on iOS) have to click a thumbs up icon to be shown the actual options with the thumbs down?
  - isbjorn16 7y ago
    I suspect they don't have it at all on their Roku channel :( I'll look again tonight, but if I can start downvoting these things, I can at least feel like I'm screaming "no" into the void, which is better than screaming "no" internally. Nobody wants to live through an "I have no mouth and I must scream" nightmare, after all.
    - adrianmonk 7y ago
      Netflix has thumbs down on Roku. That's where I use Netflix primarily, so I'm sure I've used it there.
elihu 7y ago
Perhaps their recommendation engine is working as designed, but it's tuned for some other metric besides maximum viewer enjoyment. For instance, rankings might be influenced by the royalties they pay, or the likelihood that you'll recommend a Netflix-only show to a non-Netflix-subscribing friend.
- allthecybers 7y ago
  Their discovery algorithm is hideous and on most of their TV streaming apps the search is shit.
tziki 7y ago
They didn't end up implementing the winning algorithm due to how complex it would be to run at scale.
brownbat 7y ago
Content satisfaction was more important when they ran a service where you spent several days waiting for and returning a disc. The metrics shifted. Subscriber retention just isn't that tightly correlated with them identifying hidden gems for you, that may be an externality we've just lost. There used to be a lot of competition in this space, for a few years you could go on free sites designed only to give you targeted recommendations. I think Jinni was one. They were just training their engines and became ad networks. One other factor, not really anyone's fault -- the massive increase in high quality scripted content has made search less critical. If you fail to find hidden gems in 2003, you get Pirates of the Caribbean sequels and miss out on Oldboy or Goodbye Lenin. Today if you pull up any random streaming service you'll probably find something that's good enough, even if not great. It's a little disappointing, maybe there's room for a p2p ML recommendation engine in this space for people who really want to optimize what they're consuming. I'd be into it.
PopeDotNinja 7y ago
I often enjoy Netflix recommendations that look like shows I wouldn't normally try.
brisance 7y ago
Or maybe the Netflix Prize was just a PR/advertising exercise. $1M is cheap, all things considered.

isbjorn16 7y ago

Wait where's the thumbs down rating?

forgotmysn 7y ago
im pretty sure they removed it edit: i could be mistaken though
saurik 7y ago
Next to the thumbs up rating (they only have two possible ratings). It might be confusing as you sometimes (at least on iOS) have to click a thumbs up icon to be shown the actual options with the thumbs down?
- isbjorn16 7y ago
  I suspect they don't have it at all on their Roku channel :( I'll look again tonight, but if I can start downvoting these things, I can at least feel like I'm screaming "no" into the void, which is better than screaming "no" internally. Nobody wants to live through an "I have no mouth and I must scream" nightmare, after all.
  - adrianmonk 7y ago
    Netflix has thumbs down on Roku. That's where I use Netflix primarily, so I'm sure I've used it there.

elihu 7y ago

Perhaps their recommendation engine is working as designed, but it's tuned for some other metric besides maximum viewer enjoyment. For instance, rankings might be influenced by the royalties they pay, or the likelihood that you'll recommend a Netflix-only show to a non-Netflix-subscribing friend.

allthecybers 7y ago
Their discovery algorithm is hideous and on most of their TV streaming apps the search is shit.

tziki 7y ago

They didn't end up implementing the winning algorithm due to how complex it would be to run at scale.

brownbat 7y ago

Content satisfaction was more important when they ran a service where you spent several days waiting for and returning a disc. The metrics shifted. Subscriber retention just isn't that tightly correlated with them identifying hidden gems for you, that may be an externality we've just lost. There used to be a lot of competition in this space, for a few years you could go on free sites designed only to give you targeted recommendations. I think Jinni was one. They were just training their engines and became ad networks. One other factor, not really anyone's fault -- the massive increase in high quality scripted content has made search less critical. If you fail to find hidden gems in 2003, you get Pirates of the Caribbean sequels and miss out on Oldboy or Goodbye Lenin. Today if you pull up any random streaming service you'll probably find something that's good enough, even if not great. It's a little disappointing, maybe there's room for a p2p ML recommendation engine in this space for people who really want to optimize what they're consuming. I'd be into it.

PopeDotNinja 7y ago

I often enjoy Netflix recommendations that look like shows I wouldn't normally try.

brisance 7y ago

Or maybe the Netflix Prize was just a PR/advertising exercise. $1M is cheap, all things considered.