We caught wind this morning of some new social features on the Netflix website. Members can now navigate to a “Community” section, which replaces an older “Friends” page.
According to the Netflix Community Blog, the company unveiled the new community section on July 30th and has been tweaking it significantly over the last couple of weeks. There are a number of community features so far:
- Latest reviews stream that continually loads movie reviews in real time as people post them to Netflix
- “Members’ Top 10 Lists” widget that displays user-generated movie lists based on what Netflix thinks you will like
- “Unique in…” area that shows the movies that are uniquely popular in your hometown
- Selection of strangers on Netflix who share your interests or are most “similar to you”
- List of your friends’ recent activities with Netflix (what movies they have requested, whether they have been returned, etc.)
- “Friends’ Quiz” that generates simple questions to test you about your Netflix friends’ movie-renting behavior
- Friends’ Love/Hated area that shows the movies your friends loved or hated (pretty self-explanatory)
If you are a Netflix user, check out these new features and let us know what you think in the comments. The Netflix developers are also open to feedback, so head over to their blog as well to give them your two cents.
In light of our recent coverage of social networking platforms, Netflix appears to be implementing features that support the notion of niche social networking.
These developments also put Netflix in more direct competition with companies like Flixster that provide social networks for movie fans.
Thanks for the tip Joel Simkhai.
All they need now is a Facebook application! (seriously)
Netflix does a ton of user testing. From a development standpoint, it’s really interesting how they run these test simultaneously. At an event where their head of UI spoke, they can have up to 40 running on any given day. A piece of very good news for all the start-ups on here, they used to have to do completely diff focus group and usability tests for the east and west costs vs. the middle america because of vastly different user behaviors. This has come closer to being almost negligible today.
I have thought for a while that Flixter.com is a perfect acquisition for Blockbuster. They have no social element to what they are doing with Blockbuster Online, and until now, Netflix’s social side blew. I would have been a good move to get ahead of the Netflix for once. They would have had to pay top dollar for Flixter.com, but it could have been worth it. It would have been a great way to market themselves to a younger generation that will be making a Netflix vs. Blockbuster decision when they enter college. Blockbuster blew it again.
flixster for blockbuster?
they have games too so they would be better off going with something like switchplanet.com and the price would be better.
The price would be better, (for Switchplanet as opposed to Flixter) that is for sure. Flixter has only been funded for 9 months, it would take an epic offer for them to jump at it. I was just making the point that Netflix has been doing a terrible job at the social side for over a year. It looks like they are putting real resources towards it now and will surly do well with it, meaning Blockbuster will fall farther behind. Flixter could have been a shot to get in with a younger demo. The current 21 - 35 crowd is over, Blockbuster lost.
aside from the widget, review stream, and strangers like you features, this is nothing new. Netflix has had these features implemented for a long time. they just sucked at leveraging them. Many of these features were tough to locate on their old site. this is more of a UI redesign rather than a launch of new features.
in my opinion netflix should be doing much more than what they have currently achieved in terms of social networking tools. they have such a huge database of information, i can only hope that they take a cue or two from last.fm, a company i believe to have perfected media based social networking.
Dave Winer kinda broke this about 4 days ago you just have to wade through all of the Calacanis spat stuff http://www.scripting.com/2007/08/10.html
The backlash against social networking will start in 5…4…3…2…1
In last few months, I have killed every social networking account I have. I don’t miss any of them and my life has not changed one single bit.
How does the average social networking site change the life of Joe or Jane Consumer? The answer: It doesn’t. The value of social networking is a myth perpetrated by people that are selling social networking.
Blockbuster will be further behind if Flixter is coming out with DVD distribution and online models, if they have not been moving that direction already.
I might have to give Netflix another shot.
Mark - you like using “we caught wind”
Really? I don’t think I’ve used the phrase anywhere else yet…but I’ll be careful not to use it again in the future =)
I think it is Flixster and not Flixter.
“Add a social networking module” will be the buzz word for the next century… I still am not sure if it’s a step forward or backward.
Jon
They should make a facebook app. to integrate with their social networking features.
#12 - Typo: Oops, thanks.
@david.
i’m surprised that netflix has not done this yet. i’ve sent a few requests to the guys asking why this has not been done yet. there are some third party apps there, but they are pretty limited. the dude is also banking on some amazon referalls, a ploy netflix could easily exploit to get dudes signed up for their service. lost opportunity if you ask me.
i’m also a little unsure as to why google doesn’t author some facebook apps. the third party google reader shared app kinda sucks.
Netflix has made- and continues to make- a fundamentally huge mistake by keeping their community closed. It has allowed the rise of Flixster- a competitor in the making or by acquisition- in the video delivery business.
What does Netflix gain by keeping their community features closed to non-members? Just about nothing. Imagine the user experience at Amazon.com if you have to be a ’subscribed’ Amazon member in order to read product reviews. Instead of building Netflix into the ‘gold standard’ for user-generated movie reviews and other film content, the company is allowing others to fill the void.
What does Netflix gain by opening their community to non-subscribers? A massive amount of content for search engines to index, driving up site traffic to Netflix.com. With an open community, members could invite non-members to join their Netflix network, giving the company an opportunity to convert each new participant into a paid subscriber. And as the community grows- along with the number of users contributing and filtering content- the quality of Netflix’s content rises as well. This dynamic leads to a virtuous cycle of new memberships, better content, a stickier user experience, and less churn.
Of course, Netflix can game the system so that members have access to a few special features and hold higher status in the community. But shutting out non-members is a zero sum game.
So how long has it been since Flixster showed signs of fast growth and closed a round of funding? It appears that Netflix doesn’t get the the importance of user-generated content and social networking, or they’ve become too big and corporate to make things happen quickly.
hi i enjoyed the read