Team Claims Victory in $1 Million Contest to Improve Netflix

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 29, 2009 - 6:54am.

Los Gatos, Calif. - One of the teams working towards the Netflix Prize, a $1 million purse the company offered to anyone who could improve its movie recommendation algorithm by 10%, claims to have reached that goal.

Launched in 2006, the contest has attracted over 50,000 contestants, but a multinational team called BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos said on Friday that it has succeeded in improving the Netflix (NASD: NFLX) recommendation engine by 10.05%.

The other teams involved will now be given 30 days to try to match BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos' results.

After that, Netflix will examine the team's methodology, and if verified, award the team $1 million as promised.

"This has been terribly exciting. It's like watching the Belmont Stakes, the Preakness and the Indy 500 all at once -- for geeks," Steve Swasey, Netflix's vice president of corporate communications, told Wired.com.

Related Links:
http://www.netflixprize.com/leaderboard

http://snipurl.com/l495s (Wired.com)