Netflix wants to begin delivering truly personalized recommendations

The current Netflix navigation system – scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll until you find something – can be a nightmare to use. But apparently it has plans to scrap that system in favor of an entirely recommendation-based system. Speaking out yesterday, Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt said that the company’s vision is that “you won’t see a grid and you won’t see a sea of titles.” While Netflix won’t ever know exactly what you want to watch, Hunt believes that there’s “a powerful possibility” that it can present viewers with just three or four choices that should fit the bill. Essentially, it would know almost as well as you what you want to watch at any given moment.

Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt said today that the streaming video service will eventually evolve beyond its current navigation scheme, where users have to browse a seemingly endless grid of movies and TV shows. “Our vision is, you won’t see a grid and you won’t see a sea of titles,” said Hunt, who gave one of the keynote talks this morning at Internet Week in New York City. Instead, Netflix will deliver increasingly personalized recommendations. He suggested it’s “somewhat unrealistic” to believe that you’ll be able to turn Netflix on and it will just play the perfect choice for you — after all, you’re not always in the mood for the same type of program. However, presenting viewers with just three or four choices is “a powerful possibility.” His talk covered a number of other topics under the umbrella of “the future of TV.” On their own, none of his comments were particularly surprising, but collectively, they represented a pretty broad vision for where things are headed.