Commentary

Asking for It

Next time you log onto Netflix to discreetly order that Showgirls DVD, you can thank the kind researchers at AT&T Labs for suggesting you try fellow guilty pleasures Stiptease, Indecent Proposal, and Coyote Ugly, too.

The video rental Web site announced it awarded the first $50,000 Progress Prize to the “KorBell” research group from AT&T Labs for improving the company’s recommendations by 8.43 percent. KorBell spent 2,000 hours crunching numbers and creating algorithms to beat out more than 2,550 competing teams for the cash. The teams worked with the RSME metric, per Netflix guidelines, because of its ability to better ignore anomalies — like that time you rented Hannah Montana: Pop Star Profile for your niece.

Netflix leveled the challenge last year, promising $1 million to anyone able to improve the accuracy of the site’s recommendation system by 10 percent. Until then, however, the company will continue to bestow annual $50,000 prizes in a one-two promotional punch; it gets to pimp out its site and movie recommendations while improving its technical system to boot. If only Nomi Malone had exercised such common sense.

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