Why Is An Andy Richter Movie Stalking Me On Netflix?
Netflix customer service says that search results are unaffected by sponsorships. Still, that doesn't explain what happened when Melissa Leff tried to add some movies to her Netflix queue: nearly every search she tried brought up the Andy Richter star vehicle Aliens in the Attic.
First off was Dancer in the Dark. It seemed a little off to me that the next closest thing to what I was actually searching for was 'Aliens in the Attic'—I mean, if you're looking for something to make you sob and snuffle unattractively in front of your TV and require 'in the' in the title, perhaps 'Flowers in the Attic' would be a better choice? And surely there are closer hits to 'Dancer' than 'Aliens'—'Dances with Wolves', 'Dirty Dancing' or how about 'The Dancer'? I chalked it up to what amounted to a search engine burp and kept moving...
But when Leff kept searching, there it was again and again, a shadowy sign of search results gone awry. Aliens in the Attic. Aliens in the Attic. Aliens in the Attic. Screwy algorithms? Angry robots? Divine intervention? You be the judge. Full story here.
Tell Me Lies, Tell Me Sweet Little Lies [I'm a DIRTY robot!]
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Comments:
That's incredibly weak evidence on which to base a consumerist blurb. Is consumerist trying to stir the righteous indignation of it's readers? Let's watch!
Didn't Netflix just make a huge deal of finally awarding their prize for 10% more accurate choices based on your tastes? Why would they go through all that to then sponsor results?
i think your time might be better spent apologizing for your offensive comment earlier rather than posting a non-story like this, carrie.
Andy Richter controls the universe.
Everyone knows that.
I just got the same results. However, it seems a non-story to me.
An article based on one trivial piece of circumstantial evidence? Geez. Talk about consumer cock teasing.
But, I digress.
I'm quite convinced it's the "in the" part of the title. I would assume that due to the indistinct and generic nature of many movie titles, the search engine of Netflix gives equal weight to prepositions like "in" and "the".
@Level-Headed, Even-handed: Most consumerist readers LOVE Netflix. In fact they love it even more than they love southwest.
@Oranges w/ Cheese - now 100% less boyfriend and 50% more ki...:
Agreed... my guess is that their database doesn't weed out "in" and "the" like many search engines, and probably gives higher weight to new releases that people may be searching for. All conjecture, but it seems at least plausible.
Whenever I am on Consumerist, I see all these ads for something called Consumer Reports.
Always the same ads. Whatever computer I use.
I smell conspiracy.
@dlynch: Relax. It was just a word used in bad taste, but I very much doubt that it was used with the intention to offend someone.
It was what I call the journalistic equivalent of a teenager smoking fa- cigarettes to look cool.
And shes getting enough flak for it in that article already. No need to spill it over into other threads.
@dlynch: Don't worry, I'm sure the Consumerist is taking it seriously.
.. but in reality, I do agree with you.
@MostlyHarmless: I'm one of those Consumerist readers in love with Netflix. Personally, I don't care if their search engine results are sponsored. They help me find movies that I'll like much better than I can do on my own.
@twophrasebark: LOL.
Though that would only be analogous if Netflix was owned by someone whose flagship product was Aliens in the Attic.
Consumerist is learning from Fox News: if you put a question mark at the end of it, you can say anything!
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@BWoodle: Indeed. Thanks to netflix, I have had the pleasure of watching more than a handful foreign language ..umm 'drama' movies.
I do not mind sponsored results as long as they are labelled so.
That said though, I do not think this is a sponsored product issue.
Who cares.
Speaking of, Flowers in the Attic is a traumatizing tale. I read it when I was in high school having no idea what I was getting myself into. I remember after I finished I hid it in my locker so no one would see it.. it made me feel dirty (not to say I didn't devour the novel in a couple days).
@GitEmSteveDave_RunsFromBestBuy: It's clearly a cover up for their evil sponsorship plans to ruin your search results. You get out of here with your sense, logic, and relevant information.
I'll agree that Netflix has a bad search engine. It is clearly designed to give the most popular results.
For example, I'll search for lesser known independent movies with their exact titles, but yet other more popular movies will be on top of the result, even though their tiles have little in common to the words searched.
Is Consumerist posting sensationalized un-researched Titles?
I really hate it when 'news organizations' do this. Do we really need it here?
I'm not saying that items here should be researched to the same standards of news, but come on.
@calquist: If you want another often-neglected Gothic Romance to read, try The Morgesons by Elizabeth Stoddard. *Fantastic* book, twisted in all the right ways.
@thompson: I'm fairly certain it normally weeds out such small phrases in normal titles if you're searching for key words. But if you actually put "in" and "the" in your search term, in best effort to actually find the movie title exactly it probably screws it up.
@BWoodle:
100% agreed. The algorythms that they use have saved me a ton of time, and introduced me to stuff I might not otherwise have taken a chance on (or simply not known that it existed), and for that I am willing to deal with a little hassle here and there.
I think the answer to this question is obvious. Andy Ricther controls the universe.
Maybe Consumerist can do some research on blogs that have slow days and decide to run with stories that aren't really anything other than a search burp?
I mean...Rabble! Rabble! Rabble!
@MostlyHarmless: All consumerist readers stream Netflix while flying Southwest and ordering from Newegg. They kick off their Zappos shoes and place them next to their L.L. Bean bag as they try to figure out how to make or grow everything else they need.
@twophrasebark: I guess Conan's ratings are just another example of Andy working in mysterious ways. ;)
I noticed this too!
I am an ACTIVE Netflix user (log on 5-20 times a week) and have searched a lot today (It's Tuesday, DVD-release day).
I've had Aliens in the Attic appear near the top of the list for titles that aren't even CLOSE to it.
@Coles_Law: Hahahahaha...
might I add:
"... as they politely discuss the pros and cons of credit cards as they bank online with their credit union."
@Oranges w/ Cheese - now with 50% more kitty!: It's an "in the" problem, I think, and the title beginning with A comes up high in the natural sort order.
My search for Dancer in the Dark brought up Dancer in the Dark as the first choice, then Aliens in the Attic, Shadows in the Sun, then DancING in the Dark.
@hungryhomer: You are correct, sir. I attempted the following searches:
In the Mouth of Madness: #2 Result-Aliens in the Attic
In the Realms of the Unreal: #2 Result- Aliens in the Attic
In the Realm of the Senses: #3 Result- Aliens in the Attic (There are two version of 'In the Realm of the Senses).
You may pick up your prize at our station as long as you know the phrase that pays:
"KBBL's gonna give me something STUPID!"
@Level-Headed, Even-handed:
Agreed, this is very weak.
How do you take the author's statement of "I chalked it up to what amounted to a search engine burp and kept moving..."
and convert it to "Are Netflix Search Engine Results Sponsored? Maybe, maybe not."
I honestly feel gyped, almost like this is being reported on by some mainstream media outlet like Fox...
I'm of the opinion Consumerist is grasping at straws anymore...
Apparently, no one gets it. Until someone watches Aliens in the Attic, they're going to keep pushing it. So, would one of you that has a Netflix sub. please just watch the thing already? ;-)
I would take one for the team myself, but I canceled my Netflix sub. a couple months ago. They kept suggesting that I watch really crappy movies...
Why ISN'T an Andy Richther movie stalking me on netflix?
:(
I've always believed Netflix searches did search for closest to what you are looking for while also taking into account popularity. That is probably why newer movies will come before many older movies even if they seem to be a farther "closest match."
If I'm searching for a movie and don't find it at all I'll see if there are any other alternate names or who the director/lead actors are and search by that.
Why is the an issue? If you don't like to see this movie in your search results, use the "Not Interested" button below the selection.
Honestly, people, get a grip.
Clearly this is Netflix grouping titles by alliteration. It's a feature, not a bug.
I had a similar experience awhile back where "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep" would show up on all my searches.
So apparently the issue I sent an complaint about in regards to Blockbuster Total Access with them not sending me stuff for several weeks then sending me two copies of the same movie isn't important... yet this is?
@supergaijin: When I search for movies, I search for them in Netflix's new "alliteration mode!" Because all alliterated movies are practically the same! :D
How much do you wanna bet a movie titled "Aardvarks in the Apple" will come out to be at the top of that list??
Not to threadjack (well actually, yes, to threadjack) it really annoys me when Amazon does this as well. This shows up in their sorting algorithms, where sorting by price or attempting to filter for Prime-eligible items will still show some high-priced items at the top or still show items that are not eligible for Prime.
Amazon is really really hard to search for non-book items even without these margin-hungry sorting algorithms mucking up the works. That's probably why they needed to buy Zappos...
Its possible its just a database burp. My searches for Dancer in the Dark revealed the same problem. But subsequent searches for other things didn't pull it up. Even typing in just "alien" brought up the expected movie series rather than aliens in the attic.
My bet: database issues.