The views and opinions expressed in this blog by Kyle Brady are solely his own, and do not necessarily reflect those of Intuitive Industries LLC, their clients, the sponsors or advertisers of this blog, or other employers Kyle may have.
You might be interested to know that there's two different kind of posts on this blog: "Thought of the Day" and "Normal". The "Thought of the Day" category is a once-a-day random tidbit, usually a funny video or picture, and the "Normal" is just what you'd expect from a blog like this:
Unicorn-Butterfly Soup.
--Kyle
p.s. the subscription options to the left (psst! <---- that way) reflect the same content options
Netflix, oh Netflix. Will I ever stop loving thee?
As I’ve mentioned before, I not only love Netflix, but I also have what many would probably call an “obsession” with certain actors or directors… I’d prefer to call it “extreme favoritism for the individual in question’s genius”, but whatever. Because of this “obsession” I have a habit of adding all the movies from the actor/director’s cinematographical history, and brings me to the point…
Heaven d’Video
Netflix Should Have a “Follow” Mechanism
If you’re like me and love how Sylvester Stallone plays the same role in all his movies, and want to see every one… you’ve added all his movies to your Queue. But what if he comes out with a new movie, and you don’t keep an ear close enough to the ground to hear about it?
Stallone is a bad example, because his modern movies tend to have astronomical amounts of marketing behind them, but the principle is the same. It can be very difficult to keep track of what movies your favorite actor, actress, or director is involved with, especially if they keep themselves very busy.
I Stole The Idea
The idea comes from Hulu’s “Subscribe” option, where you automatically get the newest releases from any given show added to your Hulu Queue. Programatically, it shouldn’t be difficult. Either there’s a nightly “oh crap, any new movies with [x]?” CRON Job that runs across the whole site, or a special script is run individually whenever new content is added.
What could it look like? This.
Why?
For example, I only found out that Brad Pitt is in “Burn After Reading” a few days before it opened in theaters, and even then only because I keep an eye on a large number of blogs. Not having TV and not going to the movies very often make finding information like this difficult, and I feel that this feature would be very useful to a large part of the Netflix customer base, given my previous thoughts.
This could work for directors, like Guillermo del Toro, or anyone else who makes it in the “Netflix name box” (see below).
Click for a version that makes sense.
The Plea
So, Netflix, please, pretty please, will you implement this feature?
I asked nicely!
posted on October 19th, 2008 at 3:16 pm by Kyle - Comments
First, I get an email saying Disc 1 is going to ship from Phoenix, AZ. I didn’t really give it much thought at the time.
Then I get this email today, saying it’ll be here on Monday.
Monday? Really? What happened to “Next Day Shipping”? I didn’t realize that your promises to your customers had a geography clause.
I had previously wondered what happened if a disc in the middle of a series is missing, like “Stargate: SG-1″ has a few “long waits” at the moment. Here’s what I had found.
So I have a question for you, Mr. Netflix. How can you be intelligent enough to not ship a series when it’s not fully complete and waiting for me, but you’re not intelligent enough to not ship something when it’s “too far away” (geography clause!) to be here on the normal schedule?
Right. Because that makes alot of sense.
— — —
Update (9/25/2008 3:15pm PST): I just got off the phone with Customer Service (no hold times or phone menus!), and they supposedly have a system in place that looks for these sort of things. They didn’t comment on the “Next Day” geography clause, but instead said that they usually don’t remote-ship things if it’s approaching a weekend.
They apologized, and are supposedly shipping out a “Bonus Disk” from my Queue tomorrow.
Hopefully it’s one that’s local and won’t be here next Wednesday.
Update (9/29/2008 9:00pm PST): The disc isn’t here yet! Just kidding. I got it on Saturday, and was very surprised that it all went down so smoothly and properly.
Thanks, Netflix, for being awesome. This is why no-one goes to Block…who? anymore.
posted on September 25th, 2008 at 3:14 pm by Kyle - Comments
As I’m sure you’ve noticed from any number of sources (blogs, newspapers, word of mouth, etc.), Netflix had a 3-day shipping problem which they’ve apparently resolved today.
Their answer to a week-long situation (depending on who you are and where you live it could have been longer than the 3-day period) is to give a refund of 15% from the next billing cycle.
It’s a good idea, but I have a better one: why not double the movie output?
If Netflix were to double the movies for each customer, on a one-time basis, I think that would cover their refund needs, as well as provide instant gratification for their userbase. As it is, people are complaining that 15% should be closer to 25%, based on the average 4 weeks in a month, as well as wondering if it will actually happen, since there’s rumors of them not following through on other refunds/fixes previously.
So, in short, if you were a 2-at-a-time plan, they would ship the one or two you already had waiting to go out to you… but also 2 more from the top of your queue.
Before anyone decides to try and argue with me:
yes, they would temporarily have a smaller inventory
yes, it would cost them a little more money than the average day of shipping
yes, it might take longer than usual for those extra movies to come back
But I still think it would have been a better choice than the future refund.
I’ve said it before in my rants/observations/whatever: I really love Netflix. Not a teenager-and-it’s-summer kind of “love”, or a we-met-in-Cancun-a-week-ago-then-got-married kind of “love”… but it’s still love all the same.
In this lovely era of Web 2.0 (note the sarcasm?), not having APIs and Feeds is akin to being a data mongerer. While I don’t necessarily agree with that, I’d love for a way to automagically say “yeah, here’s all the movies I rated as 4 or 5 stars… great movies!”, like, say, for use in mySocialBlog.
Stars are important. Not these though.
Netflix, you come so close to doing this that I’ve gotten my hopes up many times. Hoping that maybe you changed something, or momentarily forgetting it’s not what I think… you have feeds for “Recently Activity”, “Queue”, “Movies at Home”, “Movie Reviews”, and “Recomendations”. You’d think “Movie Reviews” would have it… right?
Nope. Apparently it’s only for if you actually write a review. To me, it would make sense to include at least the rating you give a movie (since that is a review in itself)… even if there’s no writeup associated with it. But a “filterable” method for pure star-ratings would be best.
Insta-Ship
Sometimes, you just want a movie sooner than you know you’ll get it. One of the things that has always frustrated me about Netflix has nothing to do with them: the USPS.
The mail service is so inconsistent and incompetent that I tend to get my movies a day later than Netflix thinks I should, and it takes 3 days for Netflix to receive them. What happened to “Next-Day”?
This baby loved his insta-shipped movie!
But I have a solution. Ship the next queued movie as soon as the customer rates one in their “At Home” category, on the assumption that they’ll be shipping the old one within 24 hours, instead of shipping on receipt. Keep track of a user’s “karma”… if they typically hold on to 3 movies at once when they have a 2 movie plan, stop rating-shipping them and flip back to receipt-shipping.
This would not only be awesome, but it’d be a smarter and more efficient way to deliver rental DVDs by mail… also eliminating most of the excuses “brick and mortar” stores have given for why people shouldn’t use your service.
Different Packaging
sweet a bonus third suggestion!
I can’t help but feel that I’m killing the environment while using Netflix. Yes, I recycle the rip-open covers. Yes, I realize you probably reuse the envelopes, to a certain extent, whether through recycling or magically adding new covers… but still.
Why not ship it in a lockable flat DVD case? The kind that’s something like 1/4″ thick. It would almost always get returned to you, because the system won’t change.
Don’t make the trees hurt you!
I realize it might be a few cents more expensive to ship it… but if you reuse one box 1000 times, how many envelopes does that save? How many DVDs don’t get broken because they aren’t in a paper envelope? How much money is saved from not making new envelopes?
It might even make your customers feel better. Feel more “green”.
posted on July 9th, 2008 at 6:08 pm by Kyle - Comments
I’ll be the first one to admit it… I love Netflix. With my addiction to all-things-SciFi, getting movies on a regular basis is great, and it lets me quickly catch up on all the movies that were before I become genre-sentient (or alive). Through it I’ve come to love many “great” series: The Terminator, Rocky, Rambo, Die Hard, etc.
But there’s one thing that really bothers me: Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” Feature.
In a new era of digital media, where you can have movies delivered to your home or stream them to your TV, you’d think the company that has pioneered (and continues to innovate) this market would make a better and more informed decision.
The FAILboat
Let’s take a look at what happens when I try to watch a movie through my computer using Netflix:
Yep. That’s right. I can’t. All because I don’t run Windows SP2 or higher, or use IE. Who would, in this day and age, restrict such a wonderful (and potentially highly revenue-generating) thing to such arkane requirements?
Demographics
Netflix, I think you should take a look at your demographics. Let’s do a quick analysis.
The audience that made you popular were geeks. Highly technically adept people that typically run the software they want, and spurn anything made by Microsoft. (Granted, this isn’t always true, but it’s true enough to work with.)
Your current userbase is most likely comprised of well-off white collar families, movie buffs, and geeks. Throw in a handful of college kids (who are probably highly technical as well), and you’ve got it.
Take a look at the recent browser metrics. If you believe even the lowest estimates, ~15% of the Internet uses Firefox. Not IE, but Firefox. And, given your userbase, I’m betting your server logs show something closer to 35%. Would you like to put odds on that?
While it’s difficult to get a solid number on the amount of non-server computers running Linux, the numbers are growing. Dell and ASUS, among others, are now offering Linux as the pre-installed OS… not to mention the unbelievable growth of Ubuntu, a flavor of Linux.
Do The Math
So, movie geniuses… do the math. Even if “only” 20% of your users are on Firefox, and maybe 10% use Linux, why would you alienate such a large amount of your paying customers? Just because they don’t conform to the money-hungry agenda of Microsoft doesn’t mean they should be punished. Choosing a better, and free, alternative should be something to celebrate.
We may not be Anonymous, but we are angry nonetheless.
Technology
While we’re at it, don’t give us the “technological restrictions” excuse. Anyone who’s worked with streaming media can tell you this is a load of crap. The only reason you can legitimately say your system is IE-dependent would be due to an ActiveX control… and in that case, you’re just FUBAR’d already anyways.
I’m not sure how the current system works, but I see there really only being two ways for you to stream through a browser:
Using a Flash-based Player
Embedding a Streaming Video File
Flash is one of the most universal things on computers in this day and age… YouTube doesn’t restrict their viewers to Windows + IE only, why should you?
And, if it’s a streaming file, there’s an easy answer too. People on Windows + FF should have no problems accessing a streaming file, even if it’s in some Windows format… it will just automagically open Windows Media Player.
We are rising, join us while we still like you!
Those of us on Linux + FF know MORE THAN ENOUGH to be able to run a streaming file in a media player. Maybe it doesn’t work when we click. But that doesn’t really bother us, because we get what we want, and know how to do it. Chances are we already have the media player (and codecs) to support the format… all we need is the location of the stream. Which is very easy for you to give us.
Conclusion
In the end, any reason or excuse you can provide for these restrictions comes down to pure and utter nonsense. You need to resolve this issue, before your users get more frustrated (which may hurt you in the long run), and especially as the market share for Firefox and Linux continue to grow at unprecedented rates.
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Update (6/9/2008 12:32pm PST): Neil from Netflix (confirmed via IP address) posted a snarky rebuttal in Comment #1. See my equally snarky reply in Comment #2.
posted on June 8th, 2008 at 11:51 pm by Kyle - Comments
