Netflix announced that they will be ditching the star system in favour of a thumbs system. A thumbs-up tells Netflix that you like something and want to see similar suggestions. A thumbs-down denotes that you aren’t interested in watching that title and Netflix will stop suggesting it to you. You can still search for it, but it will no longer show up on your homepage.
The star rating users currently see next to each title is being replaced with a personalised % Match score. This score is a prediction of what Netflix thinks you may enjoy watching, based on your own likes and dislikes. The % Match is based solely on in hous algorithms analysing an individual’s viewing habits and behaviour, not a measure of overall popularity across the service.
Although Netflix has always used the stars system, according to their statement, users are confused about what they do. This is probably due to start ratings on other sites and apps, where rating contributes to an overall average, and the star rating shown next to a location or product is an average of all the reviewers. Those serve a different purpose, and the primary goal isn’t always to help you get better suggestions.
“In contrast, when people see thumbs, they know that they are used to teach the system about their tastes with the goal of finding more great content. That’s why when we tested replacing stars with thumbs we saw an astounding 200% increase in ratings activity.” Cameron Johnson, Director of Product Innovation, Netflix wrote on the statement.
For members who have provided star ratings in the past, that information will still be used to suggest relevant content.
Additionally, the ‘Download & Go’ feature on Netflix that was launched for Android and iOS apps a few months ago is finally making the jump to desktop with the addition of offline videos specifically for Windows 10 PCs. This new feature will bring support for offline streaming so that you can download your favourite movies, TV shows, and documentaries to watch at a later time when you are off network, specially during flights or when you’re on the go.
