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Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years

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Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years

#11

Post by derefr »

rocky1138 wrote: post #5

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.

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.

Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years

#12

Post by jacobush »

rocky1138 wrote: post #5

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.

All Netflix movies are rated at 5.1, didn't you know? If you don't get the joke, you need to think more about UX.

Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years

#14

Post by paxys »

derefr wrote: post #11
rocky1138 wrote: post #5

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.

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…

Add in the fact that their definition of perfect is evolving from "content people will like" to "content made by Netflix".

Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years

#15

Post by crysin »

frogfuzion wrote: post #2

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.

It seems somewhat counter-intuitive to go to an on-demand video delivery service and want to see a lot of text though, no? People didn't go to Blockbuster to go read a description of the movie on white note card. I see this mentality a lot on HN and it seems like there's a large population of "get off my lawn" techies who only want the WWW to be text and nothing else, ever. Not trying to criticize your opinion, which I know I probably am, but I just find that is a very vocal and common trend on here. Maybe me having grown up mostly with Web 2.0 and on I just have a different set of expectations of what the WWW can provide me.

Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years

#16

Post by ams6110 »

ajmurmann wrote: post #4

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…

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.

Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years

#18

Post by always_good »

oblio wrote: post #6
frogfuzion wrote: post #2

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.

For you and for other tech-heads like us, possibly. For the public at large? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_illiteracy#Prevalen...

More likely is that Netflix realized most people, including myself, aren't on Netflix to consume text content.

In fact, the text is more likely to spoil the show. "A space freighter has to take refuge on a desolate planet. Little does its crew know that their temporary shelter is infested with horrific parasites. But you do!"

I might as well be picking my next viewing from a selection of pictures and illustrations.

It's just television.

Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years

#19

Post by fenrisbear »

rocky1138 wrote: post #5

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.

1-5 star rating system works out when you have a lot of data; and don't work out at all when you have poor ones.

Now, that rating only makes sense given the clustered group of people with similar taste. It's also adds complexity of the clustering said group.

Furthermore, I think people generally are not always the best critic. I totally can picture people being precise in their rating getting the most of the the recommendation engine, and the sloppy getting poor recommendations.

In that case, I can't blame Netflix for wanting to trim down the complexity for making it easier for the audience and themselves.

Re: Early images of Netflix.com show how far it has come in 20 years

#20

Post by Rebelgecko »

derefr wrote: post #11
rocky1138 wrote: post #5

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.

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…

I think that can backfire. For a while, my "Top Pick For You" was the Emoji Movie. That just makes me assume that I've ran out of good (or even mediocre) things to watch on Netflix.
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