"Netflix was able to wring three years of research to nudge its recommendation algorithm up 10.5 percent, at a cost of $1 million in prize money — a stunning feat on its own. This means if you combine dozens of the best machine learning people in the world, some of the cleanest datasets, you get a measly 10.5% increase."

Whenever ad networks talk about their “targeting” remember the Netflix prize | Andrew Chen (@andrew_chen)