Hacking NetFlix

Longest Time You've Kept a Netflix Movie?

Julie has had Finding Neverland since May 12th.

What's the longest amount of time you've kept a Netflix movie?

HackingNetflix Dropped From Google Searches

Several readers have noticed that HackingNetflix has been dropped from Google searches on the term "Netflix." While this might be a temporary result of the ongoing search update known as "bourbon," it's extremely frustrating to feel like you're being punished when you haven't done anything wrong.

I'm not doing any search engine optimization or utilizing any tricks at all. This site spent the past year as one of the top results for many Netflix-related terms, mainly due to 700+ posts about Netflix and thousands of inbound links. You, my readers, have left an astonishing 7,000 comments.

It was suggested that HackingNetflix might be on some "SPAM block" list. I don't ask for your e-mail address, and if you e-mail me I don't sell, trade or rent your information. I wonder if someone can file a complaint and your site will be dropped without warning?

If I'm being punished for including the word "hacking" in the domain name, you would think that Google of all companies would understand the spirit behind the use of this word.

HackingNetflix still has a PageRank and if you search using "allintitle: netflix," HackingNetflix is still ranked in the search. Yahoo and MSN still show HackingNetflix, so why it's almost completely gone from most Google searches is a mystery to me.

If I did something wrong or there is a reason for being dropped, I would just like to know what happened. I'm not alone -- there are many reports of similar sites being dropped from Google.

If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

Netflix & Walmart: The Morning After

So, now that we've had some time to think about it, how do you feel about the Netflix & Walmart partnership?

I know some people really dislike Walmart for a variety of reasons, but do you dislike them enough to quit? Do you think this will help Netflix? Will it hurt their ability to work with Amazon? Will Walmart buy Netflix?

What do you think?

How Many Movies Do You Watch?

Charles writes:

I have been wondering: Who needs more DVDs than they can get with the 3-out plan? According to my Netflix Fee Calculator:

http://frogcircus.org/netflix/

As long as the transit time between you and Netflix is 1 day (as is presumably the case for most people), and as long as they send your next movie on the same day they receive your returned DVD (as they consistently do as of late for us), the 3-out plan will give you a DVD to watch 5 days a week, for an average of 22 DVDs per month.

Does anyone really watch more than 5 DVDs each week, or are the more-out plans appealing because you have more DVDs laying around to choose from when it comes time to watch?

I admit that the new Profiles feature is one way to viably increase your family's film throughput, but even then, how many movies a week does one person really watch?

So, how many movies do you watch a week?

Happy Netflix Customer

Becky at A Netflix Fan blog is a happy Netflix customer:

Having been a Netflix subscriber for over a year, and for over 230 movies, I feel well-qualified to say that Netflix is the best online DVD rental service ever. I am a Netflix fan because I am a movie fan, and Netflix is my supplier. I am also a capitalist, and if Netflix does not continue to provide good value, I will drop them like a hot potato.

People that are unhappy with a service are typically more vocal, so it's nice to hear from a happy customer once in a while.

I've had my problems with Netflix from time to time, but I have to agree with Becky. Blockbuster is slowly getting it together, so expect an interesting and exciting year.

Watching Multi-part DVDs in Order

Mike from the Musings of a Chicagoan blog had an interesting e-mail exchange with Netflix customer support about receiving TV shows or multi-part movies in order. Mike was renting Season 1 of the Sopranos and got the first disc of season 2 before disc 3 of season 1.

Netflix seems to have built some intelligence into the system. They responded to his inquiry:

If a disc of the set in higher priority is not available, please note the rest of the discs in the series will be passed in order to ensure the discs are viewed in the proper order. If a series has multiple seasons, each season is considered a separate set. Therefore, if both Season 1 and 2 of a set are in your Rental Queue, and Season 1 is unavailable, it is possible for discs from Season 2 to ship prior to Season 1.

I think Mike's right, but building in that kind of intelligence into the system could be hard when "TV shows on DVD are the fastest growing trend in the home video business." Every week there are several new TV shows on DVD, and keeping them all in order might be hard for Netflix (or not).

I've rented a number of multi-part movies from Netflix, and I always keep the rest of the series at the bottom of my queue. When I return the movie, I move only the next one in the series to the top (they make it really easy to with the "Move to Top" button). I'm currently watching Carnivale and I'm not sure if I like it yet.

Very Long Waits?

Alex over at the movie trailer site Trailer-News.com sent an e-mail stating that many of his "Long Waits" were now "Very Long Waits." Here's part of his queue:

Sorry, Alex. I probably have their only copy of "Shaun of the Dead." ;-)

This is a good time to check movie availability. I have 330 movies in my Netflix queue, and only 4 are on "Very Long Wait" (2 are released in February and the rest are available "Now"). I have 8 movies in my Blockbuster queue, and all are available (I'm about to do another queue battle so I'll be adding 100 movies to compare availability again).

How many movies are available in your queue?

Torn Netflix Envelopes?

I've heard a few people comment about getting torn Netflix envelopes, and I finally got one. The end that seals the return envelope was completely separated. Has anyone else had torn envelopes?

Netflix Odyssey Speculates About Throttling

Raven over at A Netflix Odyssey has written an interesting story about Netflix and the theory that they are throttling high-volume renters.

First, Netflix has stated that the drop in prices has both increased the rate at which they are gaining new customers and decreased the rate at which they are losing customers. So overall demand for movies is up.

Second, Netflix has previously stated that high-volume renters get lower priority than low-volume renters when Netflix doesn't have enough stock to meet demand. All those normally-low-volume renters got first-pick over the Christmas holidays and Netflix ran out of stock before they could fill all the requests. Your requests got held for the next day.

I agree with Raven and think that if you rent a lot of movies each month, you have a higher percentage chance of a movie not being available, or being shipped from a distribution center further from your house.

Should Netflix Offer Even-Numbered Subscriptions?

Zee sent in an e-mail suggesting that Netflix should change their plans from 2, 3, 5 and 8-out to more even numbered plans (2, 4 and 6?). He noted that since they now offer profiles, more and more people must be sharing a Netflix subscription with family or roomates. Netflix calls it the "marriage saver" feature, but how do you split the 3-out account? Who gets stuck with 1 movie?

Maybe this is part of their "evil" plan to get us to move up to more profitable plans like the 5 or 8-out?