Netflix to Relaunch Social Features -- What Do You Want?

Fast Company reports that Netflix is going to launch new social features, a surprise after they shut down the old Friends feature earlier this year. Netflix's Michael Hart, formerly Director of Engineering for API's, will be Netflix's Director of Engineering for Social.

But it sounds like the new social strategy is different from the old one. The one that just shut down had a more limited vision, embedded in ideas of community from a previous era of the Internet. That strategy simply sought to enable Netflix customers to share their recommendations and reviews. According to executives, the features never really took off. The new strategy, however, is inspired by the fundamental shift that social networks like Facebook are fomenting in society today, changing both how companies market their products as well as how they conceive of the kinds of value they create for customers.

“It’s very nascent, as of a couple days ago,” Hart tells Fast Company. “We’re entering a bunch of new markets, internationally. There will be less brand recognition, less word of mouth. So viral acquisition strategies have the potential to gain for us endless new markets.”

Facebook & Twitter integration are easy ones, but what types of social features would you like Netflix to add? 

Comments

[MattChance]

GetGlue is doing something original with the idea of "checking in" to TV & Films, as well as music, games, books, etc (to earn stickers, which you can then request physical versions of, to be mailed to you for free). They could make a case for more direct Netflix integration, if they had the drive. They don't fully support their community yet, and do not respond to any questions or comments though.

I mainly use Twitter, but Facebook is an easy integration for them too. I'd rather it not be intrusive on Netflix.com though. I'd rather it run in the background and just annoy the crap out of anyone who dares follow me on Facebook or Twitter. No reason for it to get in my way; and I don't really care about any of my followers anyway (most are bots).

[Alphadawg7]

If they brought back Friends in some capacity, I would love it.

[John]

I tried myspace and facebook, and hated them. I assumed social networking just wasn't for me. The old netflix friend feature was different, though, because there was no clutter and it actually had a purpose, I could see what my friends were watching and how they rated it, and then add movies to my queue based on that, if what they viewed or rated intrigued me. It was also neat to be able to look up a movie I heard about elsewhere and then see what my friends thought of it before deciding on whether or not to add it.

When I read that they are about to try a new approach to social networking, I'm a little wary that it'll be like the big social networking sites, and therefore something I'll dislike, and that it might be sort of forced in my face. One of the more annoying trends on the Internet is that many things are incorporating Facebook, and some things actually are only on Facebook that really could be on a regular web page (i.e. product information). I hope if Netflix goes through with this, they do so with the realization that no matter what they come up with, there will be some people who aren't interested, and make it an opt-in thing that disappears if you decide against opting in instead of something that you're stuck seeing on every page even if you opt-out.

The other side of the coin, though, is that, maybe, just maybe, it'll be as good as the old friend feature. But the fact that they ditched it and now are recreating it says that it'll probably be a new approach, alas.

[Phillip]

I want combined recommendations based on friends list like MovieLens has (suggest a movie these four people would all enjoy) and profiles where I can separate my ratings and watching history from others in my household.

[Mo]

As long as I'm able to see my 'friends' queue's/ratings and Lists are brought back....I'm good.

[Crow550]

Hey Netflix!

Fix the profiles features too!

You know add Instant streaming on the additional profiles. So other members in the household can stop adding streaming titles to there DVD queue.

As for the new Friends launching. Sounds cool. I really enjoyed Friends and I hope.... I really hope you advertise the damn feature and implement it into the streaming devices like have a recommend title to friend feature when looking a streaming title.

[C. Who]

What I miss most is being able to directly recommend a movie to a friend. It would also be nice to have better control over what you show of your queue.

[not unpreposterous]

Can I have my lists back?

[surgical2x4]

Lists, please.

[BigDan]

First off it needs to be opt-in rather than opt-out for those who don't like all the 'newfangled' social stuff.

I'd welcome to ability to be able to connect with my FB & Twitter friends to see what their watching, read their reviews, and have the option to add it to my queue with a click or two.

A neat thing would be watching a streaming movie with someone else. Sort of like Yahoo Messenger does with YouTube videos. If either one of us pauses it pauses on the other end. That'd be cool for those of us who have family and friends in far away places.

That's about all I want out of a Netflix Social Network. The ability to broadcast "I'm now watching X" to various social networks when I start something on demand would be cool too.

[me]

I would love to have the feature of opting out of whatever the heck this new feature is... i appear to be the only person who doesn't want socially networking in everything... now you kids get off my lawn

[James M.]

I don't want a lot, but features akin to Amazon would be great (lists, guides, and see all of a given persons reviews)

[P Dub]

Agree on seeing peoples' reviews and queues. Scrub them if you have to... my goal is to find people who love the movies I love then stalk their queue. I like how iTunes on a LAN will let you listen to other peoples' music. Do something similar with queues.

[Knaldskalle]

It will have to be one hell of a social feature system before I put any energy into it whatsoever.

It's only been 2 months since they pulled the plug, some of us are still smarting... Once bitten, twice shy.

[Walt D in LV]

I was one who really, REALLY used the old Friends features, and who lambasted Netflix quite a bit when they took them away, telephoning them and posting on numerous websites my frustrations (including here).

Without a doubt, my most favorite part of the old Friends features was being able to see what my friends and family had rated a particular movie.
This, combined with sending them a note (Two Cent Mini Review) about a movie to see, and viewing their Queue to see what they had at home, or were going to be watching.

I am more and more coming to believe that what did the old system in was the Reviewer Rank. Although I, myself, did get up to 102 at one point, I think it became a race, or contest, for those involved, and really feel it was unnecessary. Writing reviews for all to see is fantastic, and making lists is also appreciated, but when it becomes something that is done just to boost your reviewer rank, it gets abused. People will post reviews and make lists even WITHOUT a Reviewer Rank, or other benefit.

All I want is to be able to see what my Friends have rated a movie. These are real live people whose interests and tastes I know.

Walt D in LV

[CJ]

"...what types of social features would you like Netflix to add?

None. Netflix has clearly demonstrated from the old Community features experiment they don't know how to design a social site.

I get my Netflix socialization from several private (as in invitation only) social sites where we discuss, recommend Netflix movies among members in our small, congenial group.

If forced to partake of new Netflix Social features I don't care for, I'll bail from Netflix review writing/rating and go back to IMDB review writing/rating again.

[Kam]

I am a Facebook user, and all of my former Netflix "friends" are also my "friends" on Facebook. Long before Netflix did away with community features, I opted to use Facebook to share my ratings and opinions of movies.

I didn't link my Netflix and Facebook accounts, because who cares how I rated a dumb romp I watched while drunk. Instead, I simply share (as a status update) films I think others my have interest in, strong opinions I may have about a certain film, and then link to the movie on Netflix.

Instead of bombarding my friends with every rating I give, and forcing them to hide my news feed, I get to be selective, and share those thoughts that I consider important. This tactic usually leads to a nice exchange of ideas and opinions, and it works fine for me.

[PatB]

There used to be an American experience called "going to the movies". This experience started about 1910 with the public showing of B&W silent short features and ended about 2010 when Home Theater took off. During that century "the movies" were a major social institution. However movie attendance was just about the least social, social institution ever invented.

Prior to movies people went to the theater, the opera, or concerts. At these events even after the introduction of limelight and electric lighting which put the audience in the dark, the people met and saw each other if only at intermissions.

People used to dress for the theater rather like they dress for baseball and football games today (think cheese heads). People expected to see and be seen.

But in the century of the movies, people sat in the dark and there were no intermissions. Should we call those years "The Dark Ages"?

I remember meeting someone I knew at the movies precisely twice in a half century of movie theater attendance. I'm sure there were other times that I have forgotten, but people would go to an afternoon movie to be anonymous. Only movie stars at Hollywood premieres went to be seen. Lee Harvey Oswald after shooting Kennedy hid from the police in a movie theater.

So traditional movie theater attendance was a profoundly unsocial experience. I don't know how the Netflix streaming social features will work out but they are bound to be an improvement.

[Steven Hoober]

I have to go with "none" because they are bozos. Why shut down the category then re-open it as "something new!" Just leave it, then tweak and see how people react.

No matter how little used it was before, it wasn't ZERO users as it is now.

And I really, really don't want it to automatically have anything to do with, say Facebook. Opt in, for people who care, sure. But not by default.

[Hanish Patel]

I was very surprised when Netflix got rid of the friends feature. I believe no one was using it since it was so hidden to begin with. The only mention or link to it was at the very bottom, underneath the "About Us" and privacy policy, areas where no one really goes unless there's a problem. Now that netflix is getting bigger and more widespread, I hope they dedicate a tab for friends so we can share recommendations, reviews, and our queue.

Thanks netflix, I love you!

[foryourhealth]

I don't think Netflix needs a Friends feature. I think the review feature would be useful as something to come to their personal Netflix account for those users with "similar" film tastes which would highlight a new review from those folks for a film you haven't seen yet or rated. It is more of a stronger "recommendation" or "non-recommendation" then just pointing you to a film to add to your queue.

[hovarem]

If I want an online social expereince I'll use facebook. I would rather netflix use the time and money to improve other aspects.

[George]

Agree with Crow550, multiple profiles especially for Instant Watching. Would like parental protection on those profiles too.

But other Facebook-like social features? Meh, don't care.

[Nick]

Yeah...join the world Netflix. I was peeved when they stopped the Facebook/Friends feature...glad to see it coming back!

[Lisa Daugherty]

Hope the new one pulls my old info in! But I will admit I didn't us if that often. I do want some form of it back.

[SuperScuba]

Well I've been bitching about this ever since they removed the Friends features, so this is obviously happy news to me. My only concern is that they have plenty of their own standalone features since I don't use Facebook or Twitter. At minimum, I want to have all the old features back, but I'm very interested in finding out what they have planned. Good move, Netflix!

[Glenn Schwab]

None, I have facebook for that. Put the development money towards gutting more streaming content.

[Traye]

None, you know what I would like to see. Thee 500 que limit for instant removed.

Id also like to see seperate ques for me and my children. This way I dont have to worry about them stumbling upon something I dont want them having access to on there own devices.

[K]

I hate Facebook and no longer use it, so I don't care if Netflix integrates with that, but I wouldn't mind seeing the old Friends feature tweaked and made more visible. I'd also be fine with Twitter integration.

[Moonchakka]

I hope we can cyber sex in the netflix.

[Former NF Fan]

I want Netflix to spend more money on inventory. i want fewer of the movies in my queue changing to UNAVAILABLE weekly. I want more of those in the SAVE section moving up to AVAILABLE. I want Closed Captions on ROKU. I want Extras streamed.

I was one of the 2% who used the Friends and Community features a lot but NF removed them and lied about emailing notices that they planned to delete the lists so I'm done with that.

Netflix needs to spend money on content not social features. The shipping department is good - the management, inventory and site has gone downhill in the past 2 years.

[Steven]

It would be nice to have some sort of badge and/or link for people to click. This will lead to a page that displays all of my ratings and reviews, as well as my queue and rental history. Easy way to share your Netflix.

[Ty]

Netflix threw my lists away and I'm still mad about it. I want social features where they don't throw away content.

[david v]

lists.

i'd love to again be able to see things like; all the hammer films releases that are available on streaming. or all the midnight movies releases. or everything a producer, for example rodger corman, has available on NF at one click.

so, almost nothing from NF themselves, just a platform for free user created content.

[Dylan]

I would love to see my profile provide numerous statistics and charts! Since Netflix posts the number of ratings per movie, I would like to see how I rate on a scale of obscure movie viewing. I also loved the feature that rated my similarity to other Netflix users, based on film ratings. That feature could be expanded to show who is the least and most akin to my ratings, eventually promoting new Netflix friendships.

[Hank]

There is nothing new here which indicates Netflix is reversing itself, as some seem to think.

It's possible that they're planning to reintroduce a large scale community/social aspect of the Netflix website. But it's far more likely that they are continuing and extending their reach into other existing social networks like facebook and twitter (as Mike mentions in the blog post).

They might possibly introduce a social based website that is independent of Netflix membership (as imdb is to amazon). That would be cool, but is probably unlikely.

Netflix found out the hard way that embedding social features in the Netflix website wasn't popular and resulted in relatively few new (profitable) users. In contrast, they can reach many, many more new users in new markets by embracing other social media.

[MiniMonkey]

The most important feature to me (and the one that I still lament the loss of) is having all of my friend's ratings of a movie right there on the main movie page making it really easy to decide if it was something I wanted to watch or not.

I also really miss movie notes the way they were when the Friends feature FIRST came out (not the way it ended up). Where you could just write mini "My 2 cents" reviews/comments on each movie that were only visible to your friends.

[Netflowers]

It is my hope that NF will start a new and more robust FRIENDS community along the lines of the previous community that they just had. I particularly miss the lists. I was not a fan of the FRIENDS & FAVS that you could not communicate with, you could add them but not communicate with them in any way, that made no sense at all. But I am a fan of the FRIENDS feature where you could communicate with each other, the feature that allowed you to have 50 FRIENDS, but it was so obscure that very few people even knew about it or understood how it worked.

[MM]

Top ten lists and being able to see what my friends rated movies. Please.

[Aaronweber]

If you would like a see what it is like to combine your Facebook friends and your Netflix ratings, check out Inveni.com. It is a new free social discovery service that launched a few weeks ago.