Hulu's New Like And Dislike Buttons Aim To Improve Recommendations

Hulu is rolling out new features today that seem to be centered around improving recommendations, and chief among these new features are like and dislike buttons. Their use, of course, is straightforward, as you'll use them to tell Hulu whether you like or dislike a show. Hulu will then take that information and use it to further personalize the content it recommends to you.

More specifically, Hulu says that it will begin to suggest shows that are similar to the ones you've liked, while shows you've listed as dislikes won't be shown to you again as you browse. In short, it's a way for you to give Hulu direct feedback on its recommendations. It's rolling out today across a broad number of devices, including Hulu's website, Amazon Fire TV devices, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Chromecast, and smart TVs from LG, Samsung, and Vizio. Other devices will get this feature soon.

The new like and dislike buttons are seemingly the biggest part of this update, but they aren't the only part. Hulu says that it also plans to roll out more personalized menus that are tailored to each user's tastes, with the goal of surfacing favorites faster. For instance, someone who likes animation will see that section placed higher in their personal browse menu, while those who don't watch a lot of animation will see that section placed lower.

Hulu is also attempting to beef up search too, making it more forgiving of spelling mistakes and abbreviations. It says this feature has been in testing for a little while now, during which it identified and corrected "over 1,500 unique misspellings for 'The Handmaid's Tale.'" Presumably, once the new search rolls out in the coming months, all of those misspellings will still lead you to the show.

It seems that the like and dislike buttons are the only of these new features that are rolling out today, while we'll have to wait on the rest. We'll see what else Hulu does to improve recommendations from here, so stay tuned for that.