Amid class-action lawsuits over privacy and subsequent FTC inquiries, Netflix announced today that it will not be pursuing the next Netflix Prize . For more than three years, individuals competed to win the $1 million Netflix Prize , in the process improving the company’s algorithm for recommending movies to its users. When the…

We’ve been following the Netflix Prize as it’s unfolded, with over 40,000 teams from 186 countries competing to improve the video rental and streaming service’s recommendations engine by 10% or more. Back in July when the contest officially ended , the race was still too close to call, with two qualifying lead…

It seemed like the contest that would never end. For the past 3 years, Netflix has been offering a $1 million prize to whoever can improve its movie recommendations by 10% or more. Finally, it looks like someone might have done just that. The BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos team, which includes…