Netflix, Part III

In January 2011 (almost four years ago!) I wrote about how Netflix should let me recommend movies to my friends.

In fall 2014, Netflix came out with precisely that feature.

I actually had a chance to chat with someone on Netflix’s Product team sometime around February 2013, who suggested that they’d been kicking the tires on the idea for some time — with one of the biggest hurdles being that they wanted to be conscious of users who really didn’t want to share their viewing history openly.

I’m really glad that the feature is out in the wild now, and that the team pays such careful detail to its users’ privacy. I’ll still be looking forward to my  Jan 2011-proposed combined-profile algorithmic recommendations, so that I can easily figure out what to watch with my parents whenever I’m home for the holidays… hopefully we’ll see that before another four years pass.

 

 

Leave a Comment.