TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Netflix challenge is met

ADVERTISEMENT

By BARBARA ORTUTAY

The Associated Press

Published: September 22, 2009

NEW YORK - Netflix declared a seven-member group from around the world the winner Monday of its three-year, $1 million contest to improve its movie recommendation system by at least 10 percent.

BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos narrowly beat Ensemble for the Netflix Prize, the Los Gatos, Calif.-based company said at a ceremony in New York.
Tens of thousands of people pored over the problem since the contest began in October 2006. At last count, there were more than 51,000 contestants from 186 countries.

In the end, one-time rivals joined forces to form the two remaining powerhouses, BellKor and Ensemble.

The winning team consists of two researchers at AT&T, two engineers from Montreal, a research scientist at Yahoo and two machine-learning researchers from Austria.
Netflix is planning a second contest. The first contest required contestants to improve predictions for subscribers who regularly provide ratings on movies they've watched, and the second will involve those who don't rate movies often or at all.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT