Netflix Updates Queue with Drag & Drop and Watch Instantly Play Button

BoB tipped me off that the latest Netflix website update included drag & drop in the queue, a feature previously available only to a small group of subscribers. I tested it in IE (Windows) and Firefox (Mac), but it doesn't work in Safari.

Jon reports that his Netflix queue now shows movies that are available through Watch Instantly, but it looks like it's only being tested with a limited number of subscribers:

What do you think of the new features?

Comments

[trx1s]

what's funny is that drag-and-drop queue does work in safari. enable the debug menu and change the user-agent to firefox 2, then reload the page. voila! unfortunately the user agent resets anytime you close the window, so you have to set it every time if you want drag-and-drop in safari. happy queue reordering :)

[Mr M]

Nice! Hopefully we will be able to sort the list by genre, movie tittle and so on.
I also can't wait to see what netflix is cooking with silverlight.

[Huuuze]

Once again, Netflix decides to leave Mac users out in the cold. I'm also a member of Gamefly and their "Q" is fantastic when compared to the half-baked effort offered up by Netflix. The notion of re-ordering lists is nothing new for web developers (speaking from experience) and its disappointing to see the Netflix development team not pursue a solution that works for all browsers.

[michael]

it doesn't always work in firefox for mac, either. just usually.

[Chris]

I've had the drag-and-drop for a while, it works fine for me (PC running Firefox) and I love it.

But I would LOVE the Instant Watching button...

[MCWHAMMER]

"I've had the drag-and-drop for a while, it works fine for me (PC running Firefox) and I love it.

But I would LOVE the Instant Watching button..."

I could basically repeat what you said :) Same for me. I know some people want a separate queue just for Instant Watching, but that is certainly a nice start.

[Saul]

I just checked based on this blog post and I have the Watch Now play button feature in my queue. It's cool. I've wanted this feature for a while.

It'd be great though if they let you sort your queue by clicking on column headings (with the option of keeping the new queue order).

[Bob]

I just signed back up for Netflix 3 weeks ago and thought the queue ordering had been there awhile already. Works fine on firefox on XP. For my Instant Watch stuff I keep all those at the end of the queue so i don't get any of them shipped (while historically I've found them very reliable the 3rd movie they shipped me was the 5th one available in my queue).

[Manda]

It's no surprise but drag-and-drop doesn't work in Opera 9.25. The new Watch Instantly buttons are great, though.

[Im Not A Turnip]

Another change (which wasn't mentioned): There used to be a comment at the top that said you have "XXX number of DVDs in your queue" and it was the total from the active queue and "saved."

Now the comment has been moved to the header section of the queue and the total excludes saved movies.

[MCWHAMMER]

"Now the comment has been moved to the header section of the queue and the total excludes saved movies."

That's right :) My queue was just updated with the new features, plus the "Search Results" page is also heavily changed. I need to look around more and see what else they're messing with.

Im Not A Turnip, add me on Ning. I can't add you because you're private or something. Same nickname.

[Im Not A Turnip]

MCWHAMMER: Hey, that is VERY different!

Did you see on "Search Results" where the "ADD" button changes to "ADD | PLAY" for the movies available on Watch Now?

It also changes to "In Q | Play" if the disc is in your queue.

[Reese]

I've definitely had the drag & drop for at least a couple of months now. The play buttons in the queue are awesome though, now I don't have to go through the business of clicking "Watch Instantly" then clicking "More from your queue," to see what's available instantly.

Oh, and the "watch instantly" tab is now "Browse Instant." Not a big fan of that change, it just sounds like improper English.

[Busthead]

LOVE the new Play button in the queue but can Netflix please make up their mind what they are going to call the feature? The queue column header is "Watch Instantly", the URL is netflix.com/WatchNow, and the tab is "Browse Instant." How about some consistency?

I personally prefer WatchNow or "Press Play" but the later may be trademarked.

[Plus]

This new feature sucks. It made my browser stop responding. It had that little hour glass thing going on and was like that for 4 minutes. Never had that until they added this new thing. Maybe I can call and get them to take it out of my queue or is their a way to customize your queue features on Netflix?

I have 422 movies, 76 saved. The Aerial is the saved film I wanna see the most, and Baghead. Here's the trailer for The Aerial aka La Antena which looks like the dopest flick ever: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2E0RoL68t4o

[src]

i dont like that it no longer says how many movies are in my queue+saved.

[hueristix]

My queue is down to only 36 movies, and only two are watchable 'now'

I agree with plus, customization would be cool as the page used to work in my palm pilot.. er.. treo. I would rather have it load clean and very fast, but others will enjoy the d'n'd.

[Tygger]

I love these new changes. The Watch Instantly column is great, so I can see at a glance which movies I've queued are available to stream now. I've moved them all to the bottom of my queue so that they are grouped together and won't ship.

The updated search is also fabulous with the split buttons when movies are available for instant watching.

I have a question to ask those who are using the watch now features. Once Netflix unveiled the unlimited instant watching ability I immediately began having performance issues. Everything I try and watch plays great for a while, and then I get a message that my Internet connection has slowed and there is usually a 15-20 minute delay before it will begin streaming again. This can happen 2-3 times in a 90 minute movie, which is aggravating to say the least. Has anyone else noticed this problem showing up when streaming had worked so well prior to the unlimited release?

I have a pretty fast cable Internet connection. I pay extra for a higher speed because we use Vonage for our telephone and I want to ensure that my calls are good quality.

[Marje]

I'd like to be able to have two queues.... one for Watching Instantly and one for watching on DVD. Having only one queue makes it somewhat unwieldy .... there are so many in my list.

[Marje]

In answer to the question above, I Watch Instantly on a wireless network, Comcast cable, and a Dell Inspiron 1721 ... I've probably watched 10-12 movies downloaded to my computer and have had no difficulties whatsoever.

[ChrisB]

Marje: There's an Add Another Queue option if you click on your name at the top of any screen.

[Tygger]

I tried adding another queue, which meant creating a new profile. The new profile could not watch instantly, so this method did not work for me.

[Becky]

Yay! I have the Play buttons in my queue! This is especially helpful for titles in my Saved section. Love it!

And I can drag and drop in Firefox in Windows XP.

I boot up in XP on my Mac Mini, using Boot Camp 1.4 beta.

[Gir]

You could use the second profile for DVDs and reserver the main profile for Watch Instantly. Not something I'd do, but just sayin'.

[Brian]

I had the drag-and-drop for a week about 8 months ago, then it disappeared. I'm so glad it works for me now. Now it's less tedious to reorder my anime.

[Rusty Spell]

The new "play" button is great, something I've been wanting a long time. The only time it doesn't appear is when you look on director/actor/etc. pages. I hope they include them there as well, since this is mostly how I do my searching.

[orionb]

hueristix and plus, you can easily uncheck the "Enable drag and drop in the Queue" box on your account page. That'll take the feature right off. I was one in the initial test group and it froze me up, too, so I turned it off.

Just for the record, I'm on a Mac using Firefox, and although before it froze my browser, I've tried DnD again and it seems to work fine.

[PROZAC]

It made my browser stop responding. It had that little hour glass thing going on and was like that for 4 minutes.

I love the new feature but it has slowed everything down? Why?

[Brian]

I like the new Play button feature in the queue. Always helps when I am scrolling through it to reorder when mailing back my current discs to see which ones I don't need to move since I can just watch them

[trixare4kids]

I am one of those who has the new PLAY button in the queue for those movies that are available via Watch Now and I absolutely ADORE it! This is one of the things I had requested on the netflix community blog. Thanks so much, netflix! YAY! Double yay!!!

[DPoe]

I love that feature. I have had it available for sometime and it is probably one of my favorite things and let's me fool around with my queue. I keep around 180 movies on mine most of the time though.

[jer]

@Manda
To get drag and drop to work in Opera(9.26) you just need to right click while at the queue page and choose Edit Site Preferences. Content tab. and choose Enable plug-ins.