But What Do *You* Watch Next?

I never run out of movies to watch, and I've always reacted to the question of what to watch next with a little incredulity? What to watch? Go look at the theater listings! Go watch some trailers! Hit up Netflix or Hulu and browse around a little! However, the question keeps coming up over and over, usually from people who aren't movie buffs. And it really begs the question how I ended up with a current 2012 "to watch" list of over 70 films (and I've seen forty-three others already).

The short answer is that I know what to watch because I've got a massive interest in films so I read about them and collect information about them all the time. I also know my own tastes extremely well and I know a lot about different kinds of films and how I tend to react to them. Oh, and I read reviews by critics. Moreover, I've read and listed to enough of them that I know who I like and who I trust. Most normal, average people who want to go to the movies or rent something once in a while do not do any of these things. Even the people who like movies a lot only tend to like certain kinds of films or certain actors or genres. Very few people are willing to put in the time to research all of their options before sitting down with a movie. Usually, it's easiest to just go with the time-honored shortcut of watching what they've heard someone else has enjoyed.

So there's an endless search for recommendations, and for better ways to deliver them. Netflix famously had their $1 million challenge to come up with an algorithm to improve its recommendation system. There was a winner, but the algorithms that won were never implemented, due to their shifting business model. Apparently recommendations for renting DVDs and recommendations for streaming movies were different enough to render the new improvements unusable. I've never found many issues with their system myself, but there's clearly still some dissatisfaction with it, as there have been several sites and regular columns in various publications springing up, specifically to offer suggestions for what to watch next on Netflix Instant.

And getting away from Netflix, there are all kinds of different recommendation engines including Jinni, Taste Kid, and Criticker. I've poked around on these sites, but they don't really provide the kind of in-depth information that I like having, and the databases are fairly limited. I'm the type that tends to ignore the automatic Netflix suggestions and go searching for specific titles instead. However, they're a great starting point for more casual viewers, and the way that they categorize and rate movies against each other for compatibility to a particular user is fascinating.

On Jinni, you could search for an action movie or a comedy or a drama if you wanted to stick to basics, or you could drill down into sub-categories like Heroic Mission or Offbeat. Or simply type in the title of something you like, and you'll get a cluster of similar films. "The Princess Bride" leads to the "Shrek" movies, "Stardust," "Ladyhawke," and "Tangled." Criticker asks for rankings of various films to get an idea of your preferences before giving its recommendations based on its Taste Compatibility Index. Other sites tailor themselves to different audiences and some, like Tastekid, will also include other media recommendations like books and games along with movies.

90% of these systems are about bringing unfamiliar titles to the attention of the people who might enjoy them. It still takes some work to filter out the dreck and evaluate for appropriateness, but it beats aimless browsing through endless titles. And with the libraries of some online catalogs continuously expanding, suddenly we have access to more titles than we ever have before, and with far greater convenience. Figuring out how to navigate and drill through these massive collections is a necessity, and the more tools there are to help users do it, the better.

There's plenty of room for improvement though. I have yet to find any of these recommendation sites or services that match the ease and personalization plain old person to person recommendations. I've mentioned before that I always have trouble finding suitable films for my parents to watch, and no search algorithm or system I've found yet has been able to offer much help. I'm sure somebody will get it right someday though. There seems to be another one of these rating sites popping up every day. And then everyone else can have an endless "to watch" list waiting for them like me.
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