"Another important element in Netflix’ personalization is awareness. We want members to be aware of how we are adapting to their tastes. This not only promotes trust in the system, but encourages members to give feedback that will result in better recommendations. A different way of promoting trust with the personalization component is to provide explanations as to why we decide to recommend a given movie or show. We are not recommending it because it suits our business needs, but because it matches the information we have from you: your explicit taste preferences and ratings, your viewing history, or even your friends’ recommendations."
Well, at least they're trying to demonstrate awareness and explain their recommendations, even if they come up short.
Awareness? Am I missing something here because most people I've talked to (several hundred for the record) feel like Netflix recommendations are hit or miss, a black box that plateaus after a while. If anyone can explain to me how Netflix conveys their awareness I'd love to hear it.
Speaking of explanations, sure, showing that I'm being recommended a movie because of some other movies is sometimes helpful, but the rest of the time it just reveals how poorly they understand me. It's can be pretty obvious that the algorithms have no clue why I actually like certain movies, after all, how could they? There are tons of things to like/dislike about any given movie, but when that gets boiled down to 5-stars all that context gets lost. Diminishing returns and noise will keep them from really understanding my tastes with their current system.
Why am I ranting? Because I want to be understood but Netflix and other personalization services still feel so damn impersonal. It's frustrating.
Anyways, we're working on a solution, sign up for our alpha at http://tagbax.com or comment/vote to tell me how right/wrong I am. Thanks for reading.
Well, at least they're trying to demonstrate awareness and explain their recommendations, even if they come up short.
Awareness? Am I missing something here because most people I've talked to (several hundred for the record) feel like Netflix recommendations are hit or miss, a black box that plateaus after a while. If anyone can explain to me how Netflix conveys their awareness I'd love to hear it.
Speaking of explanations, sure, showing that I'm being recommended a movie because of some other movies is sometimes helpful, but the rest of the time it just reveals how poorly they understand me. It's can be pretty obvious that the algorithms have no clue why I actually like certain movies, after all, how could they? There are tons of things to like/dislike about any given movie, but when that gets boiled down to 5-stars all that context gets lost. Diminishing returns and noise will keep them from really understanding my tastes with their current system.
Why am I ranting? Because I want to be understood but Netflix and other personalization services still feel so damn impersonal. It's frustrating.
Anyways, we're working on a solution, sign up for our alpha at http://tagbax.com or comment/vote to tell me how right/wrong I am. Thanks for reading.