Update: Nefflix officially announced the winner of the first contents today, and the beginning of the second contest. The winner of the first one is a team of engineers, statisticians and researchers.
Read the release here.
Original Article: Netflix quietly announced a new contest recently. The announcement was found in the forum at the NetflixPrize site, which hosted the first contest.
If you are unfamiliar with the Netflix Prize contest, it has been an ongoing initiative over the last several years in which Netflix promised to reward the person who improved the service’s recommendation algorithm by 10%, with a million dollars.
That contest came to a close last month. The winners will be announced in September. Now comes part 2. Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt writes:
The advances spurred by the Netflix Prize have so impressed us that we’re planning Netflix Prize 2, a new big money contest with some new twists.
Here’s one: three years was a long time to compete in Prize 1, so the next contest will be a shorter time limited race, with grand prizes for the best results at 6 and 18 months.
While the first contest has been remarkable, we think Netflix Prize 2 will be more challenging, more fun, and even more useful to the field.
Hunt promises more details when the winners of the first prize are announced. Judging by responses in the forum, Netflix will have no problem drawing plenty of enthusiasm for the next contest. This should ultimately make Netflix a better service for its users. The goals are, after all, aimed at improving how it works.
