Big streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime would like you to believe that their algorithms know best, serving up the perfect recommendations and sparing you from having to click through endless menus.

In reality, these systems have blind spots. They don’t accommodate for whatever mood you happen to be in, or for whoever else might be watching TV with you. And the more personalized their recommendations become, the more you risk getting caught in a filter bubble with limited exposure to movies and TV shows outside your usual wheelhouse.

There is, however, a workaround for folks who feel like they’re in an algorithmic rut: Instead of limiting yourself to a single user profile, set up separate profiles for specific purposes, such as emphasizing a specific genre or hiding overly intense content. In that sense, each profile becomes a powerful filtering mechanism, giving you more control over the recommendations you see. Read the full column on TechHive.

Netflix's extra thumb: Speaking of ways to improve your recommendations, Netflix has added a "Double Thumbs Up" option for signaling that you really like a particular movie or TV show. Choosing this option will make Netflix more strongly favor similar programs—or ones with the same cast or director—when suggesting other things to watch.

You'll find the double thumb alongside the standard thumbs up and thumbs down on a program's info page, pause menu, and end credits menu. (You can also review past ratings by visiting this page and clicking the "Rated" tab.) Sadly, there's still no "Double Thumbs Down" for when Netflix is way off the mark.

IMDb TV's new name: Amazon is rebranding its free, ad-supported streaming service from IMDb TV to "Freevee." The name change will take effect on April 27, and it coincides with Amazon's plans to infuse the service with more original programming.

This is the second rebranding for a service that launched under the name IMDb Freedive in 2019. The new name makes sense to me despite its corniness, though I'm not sure how much it matters when Amazon's Prime Video app and Fire TV home screen are the primary delivery mechanisms anyway. (IMDb TV does have standalone apps, but not on Apple TV or Android TV.)

CNN+ struggles: CNN's attempt to launch a new streaming service without any actual CNN cable content is going about as well as you'd expect. Sources told CNBC that fewer than 10,000 people are using CNN+ on a daily basis, and Axios reports that CNN may seriously cut back both its level of investment and growth projections for the service.

Now that parent company WarnerMedia has merged with Discovery, there's a strong chance that CNN+ simply gets rolled into whatever HBO Max-Discovery frankenservice the new conglomerate is cooking up. The bigger question is how quickly CNN programming becomes unbundled from pay TV, as both MSNBC and Fox News have started doing.

Amazon is currently having a spring sale on its own hardware, including several Fire TV devices. Most notably, you can get a refurbished Fire TV Stick 4K Max for $43, a new Fire TV Stick for $25, or the Fire TV Cube with hands-free voice control for $70. Both sticks have sold for less on Black Friday and will probably see deeper discounts in the future, so I wouldn't jump on these deals unless you have an immediate need for a new streaming device.

Also on sale is the Chromecast with Google TV, which you can get at Best Buy and other major retailers for $40 instead of $50. (If you use the Honey browser extension, you can also get $4 back in PayPal credit.) Compared to other streamers, I like Google's approach of recommending content right on the home screen.

As a few of you pointed out last week, I had an incorrect link to the story about YouTube TV adding some new channels to its lineup. Here's the link I meant to include. (Or, to spare you a click, the new channels are The Weather Channel, G4, Comedy.TV, Recipe.TV, and Justice Central.) Apologies for the error.

Got cord cutting questions for me? Just reply to this email to get in touch. And for those who are celebrating this weekend, Happy Easter and/or Chag Sameach!

Until next week,
Jared