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Build a Better Netflix, Win a Million Dollars?
An anonymous reader writes "In a quest to better movie recommendations, Netflix is opening their database (nytimes, registration and first child required) to users to try to craft a better recommendation technology. The problem is not easy. Says one researcher: 'You're competing with 15 years of really smart people banging away at the problem.'" Recommender systems are really an interesting problem, and that is likely very interesting data to play with.
if(user.getGender()==Person.MALE)
recomendation=MovieGenre.PORN;
else
recomendation=MovieGenre.CHICKFLICK;
And of course, slashdot must have sensed my post as my image word is "pervert"
As a NetFlix user I have one suggestion for their recommendation system that can make it much better. Make it aware of the connection between series. That is to say, If you rent season 1 of something, suggest season 2, not season 4 (even if season 4 has better review ratings). If I mark season 1 of something as "not interested" instead of giving it a user rating, don't suggest every other season of that same show at the top of my recommendations. I mean how many times do I have to tell you I don't want to see any season of "Friends" ever, even if you pay me?
The problem with recommendation systems is that they use too little information to catagorize their subject.
What they need to do is copy the methods of the Music Genome Project (www.pandora.com), and list a larger set of attributes for the films. This way it can recommend films by checking many more characteristics, such as director, tone, writer, or subject.
I wish they'd fix the problems in the logic determining what they actually send me from my queue before fixing problems with what they recommend to me. If I've got season 1 of a show in my queue prior to season 2, don't start sending me season 2 because some disc of season 1 is unavailable (which has happened to me multiple with both netflix and blockbuster online), send me something else completely. They've got the tech to keep one season of a tv show in order, it can't possibly be that difficult to extend that to keeping multiple seasons of a show in order.
On top of that, don't show me that it's available in my queue but send me something else instead. While I haven't asked netflix about this, I have asked blockbuster online, and I imagine they are both doing the same thing. The disc is "available" just not at the warehouse used to ship to me personally. Instead of basing one piece of information off of total stock and one off of local stock, base them both on the stock at the warehouse shipping to me.