Netflix is looking for a new recommendation engine, & they're putting $1 million behind the effort. They're opening the effort up to users, and apparently (longitude prize stylee) they're willing to pay 50k/yr for anything over a 1% improvement 'til the grand-prize winner comes along. Check out the press release for the details.

The threshold required to win the Netflix Prize is a 10 percent improvement in accuracy over the current Netflix recommendation system. If no one wins the grand prize this year, the company said it will award a $50,000 progress prize to whoever makes the most significant advancement toward the goal and will award a progress prize annually until someone wins the grand prize.

Who will be the John Harrison of the online movie world? See Slashdot, or check out the audio on NPR.

Oh, & if you win because of this referral, I'll be looking for 10%....

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