Hoping to make its recommendation feature better, the DVD mail-renter Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is offering $1 million to the first person or group able to "reach a certain level of accuracy in recommending movie picks" based on customer personal preferences. Something I would absolutely not call a foolish waste.The company has released 100 million anonymous movie ratings to use as data points. The prize will go to whoever manages to develop an algorithm that can outperform currently-used Cinematch with at least 10% improved accuracy. Algorithms, also used by online retailers such as Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) advanced rapidly for a time but have more or less plateaued.
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