You sit on your sofa in Gävle. You hold a remote control. The remote control is black plastic. You want to see a specific film. A colleague at the school mentioned a Swedish drama. The drama is new. The drama has good reviews. You press the power button. The screen turns on. The screen shows the menu. You navigate to the search bar. The search bar is a white rectangle. You type the name of the film. You use the arrow keys. You press the buttons. The search bar fills with letters.
The film you want is not there. The app does not say the film is not there. The app does not say the film is on a different service. The app shows you four other films. The films have similar posters. The films have similar titles. The posters show people in the snow. The posters show dark houses. You look at the posters. You think the app is helpful. You think these films are good choices. You pick the first film on the list. You press play.
The film you wanted was on SVT Play. The film was free on SVT Play that week. You did not know this fact. The app did not tell you this fact. The app wanted you to stay. The app wanted you to watch something in its own library. You spent your evening watching a substitute. The substitute was not the drama your colleague praised. The substitute was a film the service already owned. This happens every night. It happens to thousands of people.
The Weight of the Exact Word
I am a court interpreter. I work in the district court. I listen to people speak. I translate the words. I do not change the words. If a witness says “knife,” I do not say “weapon.” If a witness says “blue,” I do not say “dark.” I provide the exact meaning. Accuracy is my job. If I provide a substitute, the trial is a failure. Accuracy is a form of respect. I respect the person speaking. I respect the person listening.
Last month I met a woman at the court. Her name was Elena. She was a witness. She spoke with a soft voice. She wore a wool coat. After the trial, I searched for Elena on the internet. I wanted to see her professional work. I typed her name. The internet did not show me the witness Elena. The internet showed me a baker in Malmö with the same name. The internet showed me a doctor in Stockholm with the same name.
I looked at the photos of the baker. I looked at the photos of the doctor. I spent ten minutes looking at these women. They were not the witness. I was looking at substitutes. I had forgotten the original person. I was distracted by the results.
The Hidden Logic of Retention
Streaming services have ranking teams. The ranking teams are groups of people. These people sit in offices. These people write code. The code is not neutral. The code has a goal. The goal is retention. Retention means you do not close the app. If you close the app, you might go to SVT Play. You might go to a different app. You might turn off the screen. The ranking team does not want you to turn off the screen.
The ranking team uses tags. Every film has tags. Tags describe the film. One tag is “Swedish.” One tag is “Crime.” One tag is “Winter.” When you search for a film the app does not have, the code looks for the tags. The code finds a film with the same tags. The app shows you the substitute. The app hides the absence of the original film. The app hides the fact that the film is free on a different service. This is a choice. The ranking team makes this choice. They prioritize the library over the user.
Most people think search is a tool. Most people think a tool is honest. A hammer is honest. A hammer hits the nail. A hammer does not try to hit a different nail because that nail is cheaper. The salesman wants to sell you what is on the shelf. The salesman does not want to tell you that the shop next door has the item for free.
The Conversion of Boredom: For every hundred people who search for a film that is not available, people click a substitute title. The ranking team sees this as success.
Engineers have studied this behavior. They looked at how people use the search bar. They found a specific number. For every hundred people who search for a film that is not available, forty-three people click a substitute title. This is forty-three percent. These forty-three people do not leave the app. They do not look for the film on a different service. They accept the substitute. They watch the substitute for many minutes. The ranking team sees this number. The ranking team is happy with this number. The number means the tactic works.
A “Chair” When He Asked for a “Table”
I made a mistake once. A friend asked where to watch a specific documentary. I looked at my main app. I typed the name. The app showed me a documentary with a similar name. I told my friend the documentary was on that app. My friend paid for a monthly subscription. My friend logged in. My friend realized the documentary was the wrong one.
The documentary my friend wanted was on a different service. My friend lost money. My friend lost time. I felt bad. I had trusted the search bar. I had acted as a bad interpreter. I had given my friend a “chair” when he asked for a “table.”
The search bar replaces the film you need with a film the service owns.
The streaming market in Sweden is large. There are many services. There is Netflix. There is Disney+. There is Max. There is Prime Video. There is Viaplay. There is SVT Play. There is TV4 Play. Each service has different films. Each service has different prices. Some services are free. SVT Play is free. It is funded by the public. It has many Swedish dramas. It has many documentaries. But the other apps will never tell you to go to SVT Play. They are competitors. They want your time. They want your attention.
When the app shows you “titles like this,” it is a suggestion. But it is a suggestion that limits your world. It creates a wall. You only see what is inside the wall. You do not see the whole world of film. You do not see the best options. You see the available options. There is a difference between the best and the available.
A person should be able to see the truth. A person should know where a film is located. A person should know if a film is free. This requires a tool that is not owned by a single streaming service. You can use a service that searches every app at once.
This service shows every film. It shows every series. It shows which service carries the title. It shows the IMDb rating. It shows direct links to the services. It shows SVT Play. It shows TV4 Play. It does not hide the truth. It does not offer a substitute to keep you in one place. It helps you press play on the film you actually wanted.
The Clerk in the Bookshop
Robert in Gävle did not have this tool. He watched the substitute. He told me about it later. He said the film was okay. He said it was not as good as he expected. I asked him about the title. He told me the title. I looked up the title on my phone. I saw the original drama he wanted. I saw it was free on SVT Play. Robert was quiet. He realized he had been misled. He had spent on a film he did not choose. He had spent those hours because the search bar was a salesman.
“We don’t have Strindberg.”
“Watch this instead (it’s similar).”
We accept this behavior online. We would not accept it in a bookshop. If you go to a bookshop and ask for a novel by August Strindberg, the clerk should tell you if they have it. If they do not have it, they should say so. If the clerk hands you a book by a different author and says “This is like Strindberg,” you would know it is a substitute. You would know the clerk is trying to make a sale. You would go to a different bookshop. You would look for the book you wanted.
Online, the interface is smooth. The posters are bright. The transition is fast. We do not feel the nudge. We do not see the ranking team. We do not see the code. We only see the “Like this” titles. We assume the search bar is broken or the film is simply gone. We do not assume the search bar is hiding the truth.
Choosing Accuracy
I think about the witness Elena often. I think about how easy it was to look at the baker. The baker had nice photos. The baker made beautiful cakes. It was easier to look at the baker than to find the witness. The witness did not have a public profile. The witness was a real person with a real story. The baker was a substitute. I have to remind myself to look for the real person. I have to remind myself to look for the real film.
Accuracy matters. It matters in court. It matters in language. It matters in how we spend our time.
Our time is limited. We have a few hours in the evening. We want to watch something meaningful. We want to watch the film our colleague praised. We should not settle for a substitute. We should not let a ranking team decide our evening. We should use tools that provide the whole truth. We should look at every service at once. We should find the film. We should press play on the right screen.