Netflix Launching Controversial New Friends Features Tomorrow

Netflix is rolling out new Friends features that show your Netflix Friends the movies you have at home, at the top of your queue, and even the movie you most recently added to your queue. If you're a Netflix member, you've probably received the e-mail tonight.

I'm typically a big fan of the new features that Netflix adds, but I'm sure this one will be controversial. If you don't like sharing this much information with your friends, they suggest you get rid of them. I wish they had an option to limit the amount of information you shared with each friend.

I'm not sure I'm ready to share my queues with even close friends. "Dude, seriously, that copy of Barbie: The Nutcracker is my daughter's..." ;-)

I offered to let anyone be my Friend when the feature was launched, so I have a lot of people I don't know as my "Friends." I really don't want to think about what movies I put in my queue because they could be put up for public display (or for water cooler discussion at my job).

What do you think of the new features?

Thanks to Michael, Byll, Tony and Scott (and many more) for sending this in.

Comments

[Scott Elkin]

I am not the type of person that has any DVD's in my queue that I would need to hide from others, but if I did, I would just create a seperate account and add those movies there.

Then depending if I want to watch them or not, I can assign that account 0 or 1 out at a time.

[Joe]

I'm assumming that the 'Netflix Friends' feature is designed for sharing stuff with people you know (i.e. your friends). Maybe Netflix will develop a 'Netflix Readership' feature for bloggers to share things with thier readership.

[brian w]

A smart way for them to do that, Joe, would be to emulate Flickr: have a "contacts" level and a "friends & family" level.

[Michael]

The problem is, though, that just because a person is your "friend" on Netflix doesn't exactly mean you want them to see the movies you rent. There's a lot of movies on Netflix that, when rented, can be symbolic of that person's lifestyle that perhaps they don't want everyone to know about. And in that sense, I think providing everyone with your entire list of movies is just too much of an invasion of privacy. There really should be an option as to what levels of information to provide to specific people.

[maddymonkey]

What on earth is the point of this new feature? I honestly can't imagine. I couldn't care less about what those on my list are PLANNING TO WATCH, just what they thought about what they DID WATCH. What am I missing here? How is this enhancing my Netflix experience?

[netflixgroupie]

whole thing seems like a waste of time

i like seeing reviews

i like rating reviews

could care less whats in my buddies queue

maybe a bunch of chat rooms where i could meet some new friends

or a couple of fun cheap dates

[Kathryn]

I agree--these features just feel like recycling what's already there, but to not much purpose. Seeing what people have already watched/rated (a current feature) isn't really helpful and seeing what they're *going* to watch (the new feature) seems pretty pointless. The only feature that's the least bit interesting to me is when someone actually recommends something, either to me or to the group, and supports it with an insightful or interesting comment. (Which, at least in my case, doesn't happen all that often.) Otherwise, these peeks at other people's lists are about as useful to me as the weekly top ten box office--meaning Not At All!!

[LaWilson]

I'm glad you made this post, because this one raised my eyebrows. I didn't mind my friends seeing reviews of movies I had, but there are some I didn't review because I didn't want it posted. Showing friends my whole queue and what I have at the top is crossing the line, and I'll be deleting the whole friends option if it doesn't allow you to regulate that. I have no clue what Netflix is thinking, but they are already on my bad list for starting to send movies a day after they receive them vs. the same day.

[skebenin]

This feature seems ideal for those friends that want to lend each other their DVDs. Sounds like a win/win situation. Those that want to can share DVDs at no additional cost to NetFlix. NetFlix probably even saves a bit of money, as lent DVDs stay out longer.

"Dude, seriously, that copy of Barbie: The Nutcracker is my daughter's..."

You expect us to buy that, Mike? ;-)

[James Andrew]

I think it is a bit alarmist to call the feature all that controversial. As is stated, you're obviously able to block people from seeing your movies... and if you're honestly that concerned about people seeing what movies you watch, you really shouldn't be using the "friends" feature in the first place.
I do agree, an option to select how much information you can share with friends would probably be a good feature to have. But, as it stands there seems to be a functional solution for everyone involved. Just remove them from your "friends" list.
Maybe I'm more honest than most, but I don't care who sees what movies I rent. If I choose to watch Barbie: The Movie, it has no bearing on who I am as a person and anyone shallow enough to judge me on the movies I rent surely wouldn't be allowed into my "friends" list to begin with.
Though I do see the use if someone were perhaps getting some Gay/Lesbian material and did not want to disclose their private lifestyle choices, however if you were trying to hide who you are using a feature on a website that displays quite a bit of your personal movie watching habits really wouldn't be a good choice to make in that situation would it?
I think the feature is great and I look forward to it quite a bit.

[Dan]

Can't disagree with any of the sentiments so far expressed, but I have another wrinkle to add.

What if Netflix decides sometime down the road to rent adult films?

(Of course, what Scott Elkin said makes the most sense - if you don't want any of your Friends to know what's in your queue, make a separate subaccount and put the "controversial" ones there.)

The point of all this is so people will share their rentals with friends.

That makes more money for NF because people will be keeping the discs longer and NF will save money on postage & labor not turning around discs so fast!

When Billy asks Danny to borrow his copy of Ghostbusters after he watches it, NF will be so happy.

Just another method of throttling!

[Sonja]

I don't understand why this is so "controversial". If you don't want to participate in the friends list, then don't do it. I have two friends on my list and they are people I am friends with. The movies I have in my queue I don't care if my friends know they are on my list, because more than likely they may rent the same titles.

[REN]

It is controversial because of the obvious stated reasons. People said that they are comfortable with the information currently shown to friends but don't want their whole queue to be shown. Netflix should give people control over how much information they publish.

Is Netflix just going to make this active on all accounts? What about the people that are unaware that their friends will be able to see their queue after a certain date?

[SeeDee]

They previewed this feature about a month ago (not sure if it was intentional, but it showed up for about an hour). I thought the changes were fun, I was able to warn friends that they were about to rent a bad movie, or suggest they move up a certain movie in their queue.

If you don't want someone seeing what movies you rent, you don't have to show them; just remove them from your friends list. Or create a non-public subqueue for the rentals you're ashamed of. If you still want non-friends to know how you rated a movie, submit a review.

It doesn't look any diferent to me yet. Same old thing as before. When was it supposed to start? I see no queue, I see no "recently added" section.

"It is controversial because of the obvious stated reasons"

What reasons? The fact that NF is hoping people share so they can mail out less?!

Other than that, who CARES what people rent! Do you really care what people see your rent?

All the movies are rented/seen by somebody at one time or another. Big deal!!!

[REN]

jeez, people said that they had problems with this information being available. The author of the article said he had problems with it. These are people that don't have a problem with the current information made available. Read the article and posts for the reasons people have for questioning these new features.

My question was whether they will just implement this feature thinking that noone will object, or if they will send out a notice that they are now providing more personal information to friends. If Netflix had any concerns that the new features would be unpopular, I would think that they would provide options to allow people to control what is made available.

[REN]

By the way, I think it is foolish to settle for kludges when there are better options. How about the people who are happy with the current friends feature but not with the new information available to their friends? Do you really think "if you don't like it you can just get rid of your friends" or "make a seperate profile and hide the movies there" is good advice?

This is similar to using profiles to have multiple queues for something like different genres. It is a hack, I think Netflix should provide something like subqueues within a single profile.

[REN]

I also don't think that Netflix's motive was to get people to share movies, at least not as a way for them to save money. It seems like a natural evolution of the friends feature. I thought that the queue information should have been present from the start.

[PB]

A friend asked me to share lists with him.

...well, with films like "Venus in Furs", "The Nude Set", and
"Eugenie: Her Journey into Perversion" in my queue,
I politely declined.

Many sexy/arty films from the 70s are being rereleased,
and I am willing to give them a peek, but not willing
to put up with co-workers comments.

I see nothing different either.

"...well, with films like "Venus in Furs", "The Nude Set", and
"Eugenie: Her Journey into Perversion" in my queue,
I politely declined.

Many sexy/arty films from the 70s are being rereleased,
and I am willing to give them a peek, but not willing
to put up with co-workers comments."

So you just don't want people to know about your "soft porn" habit!!! Just start a "special" queue and put all your pr0n in that one and then don't share it.

[Sonja]

I really don't care if my "friends" see my whole queue or not. It's not like I have anything on there that's questionable. If anything they will look at my list and think "Oh yeah I need to add that to my queue!!!". Which is another why Netflix probably won't do Porn. Now people can keep their porn secret......a secret!!!! LOL You won't have to explain why you have "insert your favorite porn title here" in your queue. Ummmm see what had happened was I was selecting another movie, and guess I selected the wrong one. Yeah, yeah that's it.

Heck some of my friends could save me from watching a corny movie if they see it in my Queue. "NOOOOOOOOOOO DON'T WATCH THAT, IT SUCKS!!!!!"