Criticker Movie Recommendation Formula And A Press Release

Let's start with the formula which makes Criticker's Recommendations so great, our users even helped us to fine tune it even further. You can read about the process on our Movie Forums. And below you'll find our press release hoping to get some attention from some blogs and media outlets.

Our Press Release

Criticker Improves Accuracy with Percentiles

Criticker, a website which assists users in finding new movies, television programs and
games, has recently improved its recommendation algorithm by introducing percentiles
into its equations.

Criticker stands out from other online recommendation engines, by recognizing that
everyone ranks differently. One person might consider a score of “75” to be “quite
good”, while another considers the same score to be “mediocre”. Because of this
personal variance, Criticker doesn’t compare two scores against each other, but rather
the percentile rank of those scores. That is, how this score of 75 compares to the rest of
a user’s rankings.

Until now, Criticker had been achieving this normalization by grouping sets of rankings
together into “tiers”. But with the introduction of percentiles, a new level of
transparency and accessibility has been achieved. And recommendations are more
accurate than ever; in site-wide tests, the new system results in more accurate
recommendations for over 95% of its users. (The accuracy was determined by comparing
the “Probable Score” generated by Criticker, versus the actual score a user gave the
title.)

So far, the user base has been extremely enthusiastic about the new change, which
might be the most significant update in Criticker’s history. Here are some reactions from
the new system's announcement on the site’s forums:

“I think it's really cool that the process Criticker uses to arrive at recommendations is so transparent and
clearly explained!”

“Love this change, thanks for the continued awesomeness!”

“Criticker has become more accurate for me overall ... The site has really revolutionized my movie
watching. I've seen lots of great films I never would have heard of (and I'm sure avoided others i wouldn't like).”

“I think this is a fantastic change and makes things much clearer.”

“This is a great update. I love it for the improved granularity”

“Overall this is a great change for Criticker, especially so quickly off the back of the games site
launching. Exciting times for the site.”
Criticker has been around since 2004. One of the oldest independent movie websites still
online, it has a small but highly dedicated user base that’s kept the site running for over
a decade without any outside financing.

Criticker: https:// www.criticker.com/