Netflix has created a contest about a better recommendation system for their subscribers. The current system is based on a five star rating. When you click on a movie, automatically movies that are similar to the selected movie show up. The grand prize for the person that can improve the company’s system to be 10% more accurate is $1million!! http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/02/technology/02netflix.html?ex=1317441600&en=7dc76fd8981813ee&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
There are two things that really bothered me about this contest. I already mentioned how the company makes you feel the need to always rent movies by continuing to add movies to your queue. (See post titled Netflix Never Wants You To Be Movie-less). Netflix wants to grow and improve this movie-less thought even more. Just in case you were not renting enough movies, now you defiantly be renting more movies.
The other thing that got to me was Netflix is paying others to do its dirty work. I feel the company should develop their OWN ideas. Or why not hire a person to do this. The contest is not completely free. It is open to the public, but unless you’re a IT savvy person, you can not develop software.
