Thursday, January 23, 2014

The Big Data?

The Atlantic reports "How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood ...To understand how people look for movies, the video service created 76,897 micro-genres." (H/T Ed Shen) 

I am perplexed.  I am a longtime Netflix user and fan. By their count, I have watched and rated (their five-star scale) 1227  films over the last 10 (or so) years.  They have 20 suggested movies for me as of this AM, including Being Elmo. It's probably a fine film but I looked at the trailer and decided to pass.

1227 data points, 76,897 micro-genres and 20 suggestions that I will pass on. Is this The Big Data we fear? There may be some big Type I and Type II errors.