$1 Million Netflix Competition to Improve Recommendations Ends After Three Years

Earlier this week, the contest finally came to a close in a photo finish: One team reported an improvement of 10.10 percent, another 10.09 percent. Because those numbers are self-reported, though, it will likely be the September before Netflix can sort out the numbers itself and finally declare a winner.

But the contest has been a major success on many levels, which The New York Times details. Netflix has brokered uncommon goodwill in its field in recent months, thanks to resilient investors and at least in part because it remains the company closest to providing a comprehensive library of on-demand titles that can stream directly to televisions, which many believe is on its way to the becoming the standard.