Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years
1–10 of 41 posts
Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years
#2Downvote 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.
Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years
#3They couldn't be bothered to find a screenshot with working images? https://www.google.com/search?q=netflix+original+web+page&tb...
Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years
#4The article lists that hand curated selections have been replaced by algorithmic recommendations, pointers to DVD sales on Amazon are gone, columns are gone.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?
Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years
#5The 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.
Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years
#6Downvote 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.
For you and for other tech-heads like us, possibly.
For the public at large? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_illiteracy#Prevalen...
Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years
#7Downvote 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.
For you and for other tech-heads like us, possibly. For the public at large? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_illiteracy#Prevalen...
That link scares the hell out of me. More alarm bells should be ringing about this issue.
Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years
#8The 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.
I personally liked star ratings more, but can see why they'd make the switch. Average star rating is basically a 1 dimensional model, but now what they're doing is communicating a prediction: how much will so-and-so enjoy this show.
A show can still have a lower match for all people (similar to having fewer stars). But I think I still like the (assumed) transparency of stars better.
Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years
#9Downvote 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.
For you and for other tech-heads like us, possibly. For the public at large? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_illiteracy#Prevalen...
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Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years
#10The 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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