Milkduds

Netflix Adds 2 New Features

January 10th, 2005

I have been a Netflix subscriber for more than a year straight now and have been very pleased with the service, but was a little ticked when they raised the price on me last year. Now that they have some serious competition with Blockbuster, and soon Amazon, they dropped the price and increased the level and quality of service that they provide. Ever since, they have been constantly adding tiny to large enhancements to the web site. The 2 newest of which are a Friends list (which I’ve suggested to them before) and a way to create multiple profiles on one account.

The friends list is created by inviting friends that you know are probably Netflix members by an e-mail. They get the email with a link to accept the invitation and then they are added to your Friends tab, whic is at the top of every Netflix page. The friends page will show you the last 4 movies they rated and what the rating is. There is also much more to the Friends page, such as movies your friends liked that you haven’t seen, unique movies your friends like, movies that are your friends favorites, and movies your friends hated. Also, when you are looking at a particular movie, it will show you each of your friends rating, and it also gives you a chance to write a quick, one line review of the movie to share with your friends. The friend feature adds an entire new dimension to Netflix.

The other feature, the ability to have multiple profiles on one account, is a welcome feature to older movie-watching families. It gives everyone a chance to have their own login and queue, but also gives parents the ability to lock down movies based on the MPAA rating. There seems to be a good amount of control to it, but I’ll be interested to try it out for myself and my wife. I know she isn’t always happy with the choices of movies I get, so it would be nice to allow her to have a queue so she can get movies she wants as well.

I’m proud to say I’m a Netflix member and it is going to take a lot of convincing to make me swith, especially to a giant like Blockbuster, Amazon, or Wal-Mart. Netflix was on the scene first and now they are proving that they know what customers want and can deliver.

Entry Filed under: Movies, Technology