

Netflix Recommendations: Beyond the 5 stars – Part 1 (2012) - wallflower
http://techblog.netflix.com/2012/04/netflix-recommendations-beyond-5-stars.html

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hayksaakian
netflix likes to talk a big game, but they still show me movies and shows i've
already seen -- multiple times -- in multiple categories.

How am i supposed to discover new things to watch if you keep showing me the
same things?

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PeterWhittaker
I had a similar thought. I was intrigued by the title of "beyond 5 stars" but
as soon as I realized it was about the recommendation system and dated from
2012, I hit cmd-w.

The recommendation system is more of a loose suggestions based on criteria we
cannot really explain system. It's rare that I'll look at recommended titles
and think "hey, cool".

Ironically enough, first level recommendations that are "hmm intriguing" lead
to far more "hey, cool": I click on a recommendation, think "meh", but notice
something in the "more like this".

It's as if they are circling the target but cannot quite close the loop.

Before someone declares this to be working as designed, consider that I the
user have to go through quite a few recommendations before getting to "hmmm"
and not all "hmmm"s lead to "cool".

Not sure it's better than Monte Carlo, really.

(What I'd really like is a filter, either "movies only", "shows only", or
"both". If I want to watch a movie, I do NOT want to be intrigued by a show. I
want a 90-120 minute commitment and that's it. CAVEAT: my primary Netflix
client is AppleTV, I rarely use the web to pre-search or pre-filter, so
perhaps this is a limitation of that app.)

