Netflix has ditched its star rating system for a thumb up/down system, after the company realised that most users were unaware of the real function of the star rating system.
While many users believed that Netflix's star system indicated the quality of a title, in actual case, these ratings are highly personalised and every user actually sees a different rating. This is because the star rating for a title such as 'House of Cards' is actually based on the user's rating history, and instead of simply indicating the quality of the title, it indicates whether the user is likely to enjoy the title or not.
This confusion is why Netflix has killed off the star system, and instead, will use a thumb up/down system and a personalised "match score" to indicate what the star system was meant to indicate. The "match score" is derived from Netflix's proprietary algorithm based on the user's and only the user's own viewing habits.
Titles given a thumb down will no longer show up on the home page, but can still be searched for.
The company says the new system has already been tested to be much more effective than the old one, with a 200% increase in ratings activity.
