
Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years - prostoalex
https://qz.com/1248806/early-images-of-netflix-com-show-how-far-the-service-has-come-in-its-20-years/
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rocky1138
The quality of Netflix's recommendation engine went downhill quickly after
their move away from the 1-5 star rating system last March. I put a lot of
time into picking the right values for each of the movies I watched and was
constantly amazed and how good its recommendations were.

Still a happy subscriber, just a little less so.

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derefr
I don't think their recommendation engine is working any less well; they've
just made a higher-level strategic change in _what_ it's trying to recommend.

Netflix _used_ to want to give people the "perfect movie for them", expecting
that eventually they would run out of perfect movies, and move onto just
"pretty well-fit movies", and then run out of those too, and probably
unsubscribe at that point.

Nowadays, Netflix seem to want to keep people subscribing by making them feel
like they have a _chance_ of finding the "perfect movie for them", but only
after Netflix has recommended a bunch of those "pretty well-fit" and even some
"not-so-well-fit" movies. This is "better" (from Netflix's perspective) for
two reasons:

1\. it gives people the impression that Netflix's library still has plenty of
"perfect" movies to offer them (by stretching them out);

2\. it gives variable-scheduled rewards, rather than constant rewards, making
people more addicted.

I'm betting the new algorithm works much better at keeping people subscribed,
despite seeming to work worse. Netflix is a very data-driven company, and
wouldn't have switched to an algorithm that could be observed to hurt.

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hsljekskfh
i think a simpler explanation is that they believe binge-watching long shows
leads to better retention (they’ve said this) and as a result changed their
algorithm to prioritize items which people keep watching, not items which
people will rate highly.

Netflix basically wants to be a black box where people enter and are
entertained for two hours a day forever. mind-expanding or emotionally
affecting movies don’t really do that.

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goldenkey
I have to second this. I used to watch some really "mindfucked" movies on
Netflix. I think I watched The Cube, The Zero Theorem, and Brazil, partly
because Netflix had recommended them to me. Now? Those movies don't even show
up in the entire recommendation list. In fact, most of what shows up is series
I know I won't like. I still subscribe but it's a letdown how the
recommendation system incentives have changed.

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dooglius
They couldn't be bothered to find a screenshot with working images?
[https://www.google.com/search?q=netflix+original+web+page&tb...](https://www.google.com/search?q=netflix+original+web+page&tbm=isch)

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jere
Of course it's going to look awful with broken images. What a weird article.

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ajmurmann
The article lists that hand curated selections have been replaced by
algorithmic recommendations, pointers to DVD sales on Amazon are gone, columns
are gone. None of these things sound like a plus to me. Especially given how
their algorithms seem to optimize for something (me spending time searching?
watching particular movies that clearly aren't a match but Netflix has done
incentive for me to watch? No clue) that's not me easily finding the best
matching movie. Their interface at least on PS4 also makes it annoying to just
read a description of a movie without anything starting to play. Their ratings
seem all inflated and useless. I have to go to IMDb or rotten tomatoes to get
useful ratings. The best interface for Netflix I've ever had was a Ruby script
that used their API to give me a list of movies ranked by their prediction of
how much I'd like them. The startling thing was that when that still worked
their own interface showed me movies they predicted I'd dislike and didn't
show me movies that they thought I'd love. Since the API is gone I can't
confirm this anymore but it certainly feels like it.

Edit: way back they even used to have a page that was in essence a table of
movies that was sortable by rating. That was so useful. Unimaginable today!

Edit 2: I'd love it if someone knew and could explain what the Netflix UI is
actually optimizing for. I can't believe that it's that they cannot do better.
Are they trying to hide lack of content? Are there different money
implications of I watch movie A instead of movie B?

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ams6110
I think it's lack of content. Or lack of good content more specifically. From
my perception about 20% of the titles on Netflix are in any way worth
watching. The other 80% are just there taking up space in the listings to make
it look like I have a lot of choices. I rarely watch anything on Netflix
anymore because I feel like I've watched what's worth watching. I check it
occasionally to see if there's something new, but I mostly keep the
subscription because it's a family deal and others in the household still find
some value in it.

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frogfuzion
Downvote me if you want but I love the massive amounts of text in the early
version. For me. The web is better with more text and less whatever else.

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oblio
For you and for other tech-heads like us, possibly.

For the public at large?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_illiteracy#Prevalen...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_illiteracy#Prevalence)

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rocky1138
That link scares the hell out of me. More alarm bells should be ringing about
this issue.

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surfingtheweb
For the time being, I still use netflix, amazon, and hulu streaming services.
If you've ever used the apps for any of those services on roku, apple tv, or a
smart tv, you're likely frustrated by how difficult it is to find something
relevant to watch. I often think, "Who thought this UI was good?" That thought
leads to, "What if the interface is purposely bad?" and "Why doesn't Hulu want
me to find anything to watch?"

I don't know how licensing works with these streaming services. I'm beginning
to think that because these companies license content from third parties, they
have an incentive to discourage people from watching anything. Maybe if you
don't watch, then they pay less in licensing fees. The ideal profit scenario
is for you to subscribe to Netflix's service, but not consume any content. If
you pay Netflix, but never watch anything, they don't have to expend the costs
to deliver content to you (licensing and bandwidth). This gives Netflix an
incentive to create algorithms that obfuscate content rather than a smart
algorithm that suggests relevant content.

Does anyone else get this feeling? Does anyone know if licensing agreements
are set up on a pay-per-play basis between studios and netflix?

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anonytrary
I think everyone here realizes that broken CSS and image links makes it a
completely moot comparison.

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digi_owl
As an outsider looking in i can't help wonder if it lost something on the way.

The impression i had of Netflix from back when was that it had all this weird
and wacky stuff reaching back to the straight-to-VHS rental era.

This because at that time the big studios allowed Netflix to digitize a
crapload of their back catalog for a song, because they didn't have the first
clue if anyone would have any interest in it at all.

But in recent years the studios have learned, and wants to cut out the
middleman. Thus Netflix has moved on to producing their own stuff, while what
used to be on Netflix may be on any number of studio services (if said
services ever get off the ground, thanks to their paralyzing fear of pirates).

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bkraz
I still really like Netflix, but the increased force-feeding of their own
content doesn't excite me about the future. I would switch to a competing
service if it offered a wider selection of movies, but without any Netflix
content. If I found a streaming service that had nearly every movie ever
produced, I would pay a much larger subscription fee.

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tjr225
"Its recommendations, now powered by algorithms, were curated by staffers
then. Collections of movies grouped by common themes included Complicated
Couples, Serious Spy Action, High-Tech Horrors, and Bad People, Great
Movies—precursors to the remarkably specific personalized rows of categories
now featured on Netflix. "

I for one pine for the days where I could find an individual with similar
sensibilities - or better yet NEW sensibilities that I did not know shared,
and follow their curation...rather than having some engineered algorithm
suggest music and movies to me.

Thankfully there are many wonderful radio stations and bloggers who still
exist. I find SV has done a terrible job replacing them and for that I am
grateful.

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monster_group
Netflix recommendations are so bad they are downright comical and make me
laugh every day. I can't believe their developers get paid 300K+. For that
kind of salary and the work they put out, they have got to be the world's most
unproductive employees.

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yosito
Holy hell! Netflix has been around for 20 years?!

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mproud
“Hey, look at this page from the Internet Archive! ERMAGHERD lulz!”

