Since our last attempt to roll out recommendations didn’t work out, I wanted to give you a preview of what the new version will look like. Let me take you on a short tour.

Along the top we’ll have the equivalent of the “More” and “Again” buttons that we have now, along with an option for sharing. The giant text there in the middle will tell you what you just watched. Along the bottom we have an accordion control that will default to showing more episodes from the show you just watched, and allow the viewer to look at episodes we’re featuring or episodes suggested by the Strands recommendations engine. You will be able to opt-out of displaying featured and recommended episodes in your customized player, and you can go back to the old simple endcap if you want to.

The recommendation engine will return shows that we think are high quality and age appropriate.  In addition, it will only recommend shows that are opted into ads and are recommending shows, themselves. That won’t apply to featured episodes though. To be promoted there you just have to make a great show.

Finally, this will be an iterative process. The first version won’t have all the bells and whistles you see here, but this is where we want to end up.

Tell us what you think. We’d love to hear your thoughts.