Remember When Netflix Wanted To Rent DVDs On A Different Website? Yeah, That Was A Fun Week

Ahh, July. We miss you so. The world was newer then, the air fresher, the people a little nicer, and there used to be something called Qwikster. Built as a solution to the heady problem of renting videos to people who still use optical media, Qwikster was supposed to be the part of Netflix that still slipped disks into little sleeves. Netflix proper, on the other hand, would simply stream videos over the Internet and never the twain would meet.

Writes Netflix:

It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.

This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, no Qwikster.

That’s right: Qwikster is dead. Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings says the plan was misguided and that this will be the last time they futz with the pricing in a long while. Considering no one could actually spell Qwikster (Quixter? Quickstor? Qkstr?) let alone cared enough to create two accounts, one for streaming and one for the occasional DVD, it was a fairly sly move on Netflix’s part. I just wonder what pushed them over the edge? Low uptake? Feeling silly when they said the name? I have a line in at Netflix right now asking them but until then, revel in a world with one fewer standalone DVD rental service.

You’ll remember that Erick was right about Qwikster back in July when we recorded this Fly Or Die.