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"I'm a Netflix user, and while I'm not completely blown away by their reccomendation engine, I find that it comes in very handy and is usually fairly accurate.\u00A0 While occaisionally it reccomends a real stinker (like last week's Robot Jox - yech), most of the time we get a real kick out of exploring movies new to us in the genres we're familiar with.\nPart of what makes Netflix good in this regard is that they've put a $1 million bounty on anyone who can significantly improve their reccomendation engine.\u00A0 The challenge has been ongoing for quite a while, and there have been some who've won fractions of the prize, but to the best of my knowlege, no one has won the full grand prize.\nAll that isn't particularly germain to the story here, but it is an ironic coincidence that this particular stealth startup seems to be attempting to do for online video and oldteevee what Netflix did for DVD rentals.\u00A0 Even more coincidentally, the amount of the initial investment to this startup is the same amount as total amount in the Netflix Prize pool.\nThe company is called Jinni, and little is known about them, aside from the teaser on their website:\nOn Friday night, a girl in a ponytail and sweatpants stops by her local DVD rental store. \u201CI\u2019m tired and my boyfriend is grumpy. He likes car races and hates Renee Zellweger. I like snappy dialogue and the soundtrack to Run Lola Run. What should we see?\u201D The store manager, a third-year film student, strokes his goatee thoughtfully and goes to the shelves.\nOnline and in video-on-demand (VOD) interfaces, viewers lack meaningful information for selecting new entertainment. Without reliable tools to navigate thousands of films and TV shows, overwhelmed viewers watch less and opt for \u201Csafe\u201D mass hits \u2013 the paradox of choice.\nWhat if an algorithm could translate viewers\u2019 moods and tastes, even better than the film student with the thoughtful goatee?\nThe prize money $1 million investment comes from Start-up Factory, an angel round investor."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/05/08/jinni-get-1m-to-magically-netflix-it-up-with-online-video/>