Bruce Perens

Netflix has already had a million-dollar contest to develop optimization for a page that suggests films to its users based on their previous orders. They've aborted a second contest due to concerns of customer data privacy. But they're ignoring a really crucial shortcoming in their site that would make it much more optimal: who are you selecting movies for?

Whenever I visit their site, it offers me Movies with a Strong Female Lead. Sorry, Netflix, that's my wife Valerie. Romantic comedies too. And then there's Feel Good Family and Children's Films. Uh, that's Stanley. And believe it or not, Valerie and I don't always watch Stanley's films with him, and I might not watch the chick flicks with Valerie. Some of these are delivered online, too, so they aren't ever in our mailed-DVD queue.

So, why doesn't Netflix recognize that many families that purchase an account are actually ordering for at least two different customer groups? Valerie doesn't really need to see the same screen that I do, but currently she doesn't have any other options as we both use the same login.

Feel free to send the Million my way, Netflix. :-)