Netflix awards $1M prize

Netflix (finally) awarded a $1M prize to a seven-member group that has been able to improve the Netflix movie recommendation system by at least 10%.

The AP reports that the Netflix contest began in October of 2006, and there were over 51,000 contestants. The competition was apparently very close, with two teams (Ensemble and BellKor) in an apparent dead-heat.

Following this technical and PR success, Netflix is now planning a second contest, this time to improve predictions for people who don't rate movies very often ... or at all. (There must be a little more to that last part.)