Bad news for folks who liked the star power of Netflix ratings. The media streaming giant will be swapping it out for something more Siskel and Ebert-esque.
During a press conference at the company’s headquarters, Variety reports Todd Yellin, Netflix Product VP, said the streaming service would ditch stars in favor of a more simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down rating.
The old ratings will still be used for personalizing content to users, but the stars are going to be permanently phased out in the next few weeks. Netflix will also introduce a recommendation feature that generates a percentage for how well a TV or film may fit someone’s tastes.
Yellin said the more binary approach received 200% more engagement from users when Netflix tested it out with some users in 2016. “We are addicted to the methodology of A/B testing,” the VP said. He also said the rating system just wasn’t as effective of a way to take the pulse of a user’s interests, according to Variety.
—RealClearLife
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