Netflix Prize: The truth is out there, in the data

Nine months after the start of the contest, still in 10th place, less than 1% behind the leading team.

Currently leading is a four-person team Gravity from Budapest University of Technology and Economics. In third place is a four-person team from University of Toronto, including Prof. Geoffrey Hinton, a well known person in the machine learning community.

Looks like the competitors approach the task really professionally. A recent article in the New York Times, "Netflix Prize Still Awaits a Movie Seer", cites the leader of Team Gravity:
"Domonkos Tikk, a data mining expert who is a senior researcher at the university in Budapest, leads Team Gravity. Dr. Tikk said that since October, his team, which is composed of three Ph.D. candidates and himself, has spent eight hours a day, seven days a week on the problem".