The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Competition could help Netflix: "Netflix, after all, is almost as much a cult as it is an e-commerce site. You run into someone at the post office returning DVDs and it's instant bonding. At a party talking movies, soon you're off in a corner with other Netflixers. " Read more
The writer is certainly correct about the cult nature of Netflix. Its as much about waiting for those big red envelopes to arrive as it is about the basic service itself. I would feel bad to leave Netflix for a competitor, particularly an 800 pound gorrilla like Amazon, but if they offered superior service ( a good recommendation engine would point it that way). But the writer has a really good point about the lousy performance of their recommendation engine. I basically think of it as a running joke when I log in and see these stupid recommendations. Its a whole element of the service that I basically ignore. But with these competitors coming into the market, particularly one with the distribution reach and recommendation software of Amazon, its time for Netflix to move some of these site elements out of beta if they want to survive.
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