Movie recommendations have most often been through word of mouth, but Netflix wants you to work harder to talk about the movies you watched over the weekend. The Netflix Updates application for Facebook users allows you to share your movie ratings with friends and view friend’s ratings through your news feed. The most attractive feature of this application for me is being able to add a movie to your queue from your friend’s news feed.
I am expecting the common reactions: “But I don’t want everyone to see my ratings!”, “I hate Facebook!”, “I hate change!” As with any Facebook application, you can control what your friends see. You can have Facebook prompt you before publishing any stories from Netflix Updates, or you can have Facebook update automatically without prompting. There is also an option to have your stories posted in one-line, short, or full. I put mine to one-line because I don’t want to contribute to the clutter already on my friend’s news feeds.
I just started using twitter, and I’m reluctant to integrate my tweets into Facebook status updates. My non-tech friends couldn’t care less about my tweets containing my blog posts and news stories. But with the Netflix app, my non-tech friends can get recommendations on movies to watch through my news feed. Not everyone loves tech, but who doesn’t love movies?
If you’re a Netflix and Facebook user, I highly recommend that you use this. Integrate your Facebook and Netflix account by accessing your Netflix account here.
MOVING TO BROADEN ITS ACCESSIBILITY, NETFLIX INTREGRATES WITH FACEBOOK CONNECT,
ENABLING MEMBERS TO SHARE MORE WITH FRIENDSLOS GATOS, Calif., March 24, 2009 – As part of its plan to make Netflix features more broadly accessible to members and their friends, Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), the world’s largest online movie rental service, today announced its integration with Facebook Connect, which seamlessly links a Netflix member’s account with his or her Facebook account. Facebook Connect will extend members’ movie ratings from the Netflix community to Facebook. Netflix members decide if they want to use Facebook Connect and can turn it on or off at any time.
Each time a Netflix member rates a movie, that one- to five-star rating will be posted on his or her Facebook profile and shared with the member’s friends if the Netflix member has enabled Facebook Connect. Because friends can make comments in response to ratings posts, this new feature encourages an enriched movie-watching experience, enhanced by interaction and conversation among friends. Movie rating posts on Facebook will also link back to the correlating movie page at Netflix, enabling Facebook users to learn more about a specific movie and allowing Netflix members to easily add the movie to their own Queues.
“Movies make for great conversations,” said Gibson Biddle, vice president of product management for Netflix. “By integrating with Facebook Connect, Netflix members can now share their movie-watching experiences even more easily than before, allowing for greater exchange of movie recommendations with their friends.”
“Netflix is a clear leader in bringing innovation to renting, viewing and engaging around movies,” said Ethan Beard, director of platform marketing, Facebook. “We think the social features in Facebook Connect provide a tremendous opportunity for Netflix subscribers to share their thoughts and feelings on movies with their friends in the Netflix community and with Facebook’s more than 175 million active users.”
To link their Netflix and Facebook accounts, Netflix members will use the “Connect” button on the Netflix member site at http://www.netflix.com/facebookconnect. Upon first connecting, each member will have the option of pushing all future movie ratings to his or her Facebook profile or to be presented with the option of publishing ratings to Facebook on a case-by-case basis.
Netflix anticipates the integration of additional features through Facebook Connect and encourages user feedback through the Netflix Facebook page www.facebook.com/netflix or on Twitter www.twitter.com/netflix