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Comment by pc86 | Hacker News Reader

Just because they don't have the rights to stream The Office doesn't mean they don't know what shows and movies they have are enjoyed by people who also enjoy The Office. This is literally the entire point of search - show what you're searching for if it exists, and show related things after it.

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> This is literally the entire point of search - show what you're searching for if it exists, and show related things after it.

That might make sense in an abstract way, but no, that's not what people expect. If I'm searching for something at Netflix, I don't want the answer to "does it exist?", I want the answer to "do you have available for viewing?".

So you search for The Office on Netflix which is only available on Peacock as far as I know. How is a screen that says "We don't have The Office, sorry!" with no other information at all preferable to this? https://i.imgur.com/W6a1hDk.png

No, it's fine to offer similar products. Good on Netflix for this.

In the more general sense of the search topic, I don't want a search to return things they don't have. If it's out of stock, say so prominently. Don't make the user click through to the item itself only to see "out of stock".

but netflix doesn't tell you that. if they don't have what you searched for, it shows you other things they DO have that are similar.

It tells you that in the first line of the results, like the sibling comment of yours proves it.

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