Here’s an explanation by Netflix’s Cameron Johnson in product innovation. This new row – complete with its own special design – will enable you to see what is most popular on Netflix in your country. It will be updated every day and the position of the row will vary depending on how relevant the shows and films are to you. In addition to the overall top 10 list, you’ll also be able to see the top 10 most popular series and top 10 films when you click on the movies and TV shows tabs. Shows and films that make these lists will also have a special “Top 10” badge, wherever they appear on Netflix. That way you can easily see what’s in the zeitgeist, whether you’re browsing by genre or through your personal list – or when searching for specific shows or films. Here’s what I learned about the new feature after scrolling through my own account.
The feature doesn’t appear on my homepage. Maybe it’s just a temporary glitch and they’ll fix it soon enough. It does, however, appear when I click either the ‘Movies’ or ‘TV Shows’ tab. You might be wondering what’s the difference between the ‘Top 10’ feature and ‘trending now’. I’m still trying to figure that out. The ‘trending now’ feature is still available and weirdly enough not all the films which have the ‘top 10’ badge are ‘trending now’, which doesn’t making any sense whatsoever but tells us that different algorithms are used. UPDATE I’ve just received word that the key difference between ‘Most Popular’ & ‘Trending Now’ and ‘Top 10’ is that the former two are tailored to your tastes (an intersection between what’s popular on Netflix and what you’ve watched before), while the latter is calculated based on what’s popular in your country and has nothing to do with your personal viewing habits. To avoid confusion, ‘Most Popular’ and ‘Trending Now’ will soon be updated to ‘Popular Picks For You’ and ‘Trending Picks For You’ respectively.
