Jeff B.

Why I Like Netflix's $1 Million Challenge

Although I admire Netflix's approach of having a contest to determine the best way to improve it's recommendations, I think they went about it totally wrong.
As a mostly happy Netflix subscriber for about 7 or 8 yrs now, I think I can say a bit about how accurate their rec's are. In short, as much as I like Netflix overall, their recommendations stink. I rarely agree with their picks for me.
They went about solving this problem as if it was a "programming" problem. That misses the point. This is first and foremost a business problem -- with programming as one part of the solution. I listened to the guys who won, talk about their approach. They have a few good ideas, but again, I had the feeling they asked, "Okay, how can we program this?" before they asked "What is the real problem here, and how do we solve that conceptually?"
For example, has anyone really thought about asking say, 1000 Netflix customers to complete a detailed survey (give us a free month or two & we'll do it) which seeks to understand why people like/don't like certain movies? Once Netflix understands that, then they can worry about how to program it. The way they approached it, I am not confident it will solve the problem. I guess I will find out.

Blockbuster: Poor Earnings, Poor Shareholders.

Your forgot one: "Poor Customers". The main point here should be the poor customer experience which Blockbuster continues to provide (online or in-store). Too many titles out of stock, long lines, crowded stores & very poor selection make this retailer a loser.