Comments on: Netflix offers $1 million for a better review

Netflix to award $1 million to first person who can improve accuracy of personal movie recommendations.
The New York Times

[skeptik]

It starts with better reviewing.

As a netflix customer with a genius mentality, I can do better. That's a given. (That's humor, people.)
But one thing I'd like to point out is that a better review process would help a great deal. It's voluntary, so it doesn't have to bother the users, but for those who want recommendations the time spent would be well worth it.
The review process needs to ferret out what the viewer likes, not just a 1-5 star rating on whether they liked it.
Now where is my million dollars?

[Jim Hubbard]

CNet is sucked in yet again....

This is nothing more than an advertising ploy dreamed up at Netflix.

If you read the terms, the contest is not over until at least October 2, 2011. That's a 5 YEAR contest!

The calculated odds are that Netflix will pick up enough free press and new customers to pay the prize off in 5 years.

And, I bet they will.

[richardj311]

Wrong - Take the time before slamming

If you take a look at the contest rules (www.netflixprize.com), you'll see the contest ends on 2 Oct 2011, but the prize will be given to the team that reaches the 10% improvement threshold at any time before that date. In addition, they're giving $50k each year to the group that shows most progress that year. Maybe some good PR from Netflix, but why not? It's an interesting mathematical/statistical/data problem, with legitimate appeal in the research community.

[qwerty75]

also add

This is not a simple algorithm and proof process.

If someone does win this, I will be shocked if it is won before 2009.

[mfclarke]

NetFkix Contest

Where can you read the terms of the competition? I'm especially interested in the 2011 part.
Thanks,
mfc

[qwerty75]

very cool

Maybe I should work on this for my Masters of Computer Science Thesis. Get a millions dollars and my masters. Can't beat that!

This is a great idea. Anything to advance mathematics and push computing forward is a great idea.

Maybe cisco will offer a huge prize for solving the travelling saleman problem for all cases. Big bucks, gimme Phd dissertation, Turing award and Nobel prize in mathematics in one shot. Not to mention all the fantastic applications that will come after a valid proof is submitted.