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Comment by rappatic | Hacker News Reader

Ironically, Netflix's recommendation algorithm is now notoriously bad. In my experience, it seems to heavily push whatever "original" they just dumped $100 million into as well as what's most popular on the platform at the time. But it makes sense, since people increasingly rely on social media for deciding what to watch. A dollar Netflix spends improving their recommendation algorithm simply won't stack up to the dollar TikTok/Instagram/etc. spends improving theirs, because social media apps have so much more data to work with. It's probably more economical from their POV to let broad social media trends dictate what people watch.

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I suspect their algorithm has other success metrics than "did user enjoy movie". For example if the movie is a Netfix Original or exclusive movie then it is more valuable to Netflix because they may discuss or recommend it, which leads to more signups. Similarly they may prefer newer shows that are more likely to be discussed and raise hype than older movies that even if the user loves them may be less likely to advertise to others.

If any streaming service wanted to give my family good recommendations, they would let me select ALL of the people who are watching right now.

Husband.

Wife.

Husband and Wife.

Husband and 4th grader.

Wife and Pre-K.

Husband, Wife, 4th grader, and Pre-K.

4th grader.

Pre-K.

4th grader and Pre-K.

Each of those has a totally different viewing pattern and preferences.

This 100%. I promise you that I’m not secretly very interested in Dragon Rider episodes without my kids present. They have their own accounts, but it is hard to share family movies or when they just use the wrong account.

I also think half of my viewing is with my spouse. We are pretty aligned in some shows but we are different enough where “My List” really means when I’m alone, and we are missing an “Our List” for when we are together.

I'm pretty happy with how the accounts work: my children watch Octonauts in a Kids account (sometimes I watch with them), my wife and I have separate accounts, so she doesn't get recommendations for war movies and psychological thrillers, and I don't get recommendations for Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

you guys don't use different viewing profiles?

I think they’re making the case that viewing profiles are an antiquated concept and what’s more interesting is shared viewership profiles, or some algorithm that takes multiple profiles into account at once.

The University of Minnesota MovieLens collaborative filtering system had this... Twenty years ago?

The point being that when I watch something with my 7yo, she's not gonna watch any of the crap I watch and I'm not gonna watch any of the crap she watches. We're gonna find something in-between.

My daughter isn't allowed to watch Home Alone by herself, but she's allowed to watch it with either my wife or I. Parental Guidance.

But neither my wife nor I have any interest in Home Alone 2 being in our personal profile Suggestion lists.

And when my wife is trying to bring up Home Alone 2 to watch with my daughter, she doesn't need my daughter seeing Naked European Romance Drama showing up in the Continue Watching.

I think the suggestion is that you make a profile for "Adults + Kids" (separate from your individual profiles).

It could also allow guests to check in.

My friend Steve comes over. He and I both check in.

It makes recommendations for shows it predicts we would both like.

As a sibling pointed out. This already exists. Profiles don't just let you do "John" they let you do "John and Sally". Maybe they should be more explicit that people can be creative ith their profiles. Would be good marketing for people who are stuck like this.

For a family of five that is 32 profiles.

And you will need to fill them up with data separately.

in my experience from the outside it's difficult to separate their rec algorithm quality vs. the quality of their inventory. you're making the assumption they have a ton of great stuff that they're just not showing you, but they may not.

I wonder if the real goal is the secondary effect. If you watch a show on Netflix and enjoy it, that’s good for customer satisfaction. If you watch their exclusive original content, not only are you satisfied but now you are telling all your friends about something only Netflix can provide.

Funny you mention TikTok, as it became famous for recommending personally addictive content.

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