Instant Queue

Today we added an additional Queue to your Netflix account - the Instant Queue. This Queue lets you keep a list of the movies & TV episodes you want to watch instantly on your PC. We’ve set it up for you by adding all of the titles from your DVD queue that are available to watch instantly.

Of course you can also add titles to the Queue yourself. Find titles that are available to watch instantly by clicking the Browse Instant tab on the Netflix website, or by looking for the blue Play buttons across other parts of the site. Click a Play button to watch instantly on your compatible PC, or mouse over the Play button and click Add to Instant Queue to save the title to your Queue and watch it later.

You can find your Instant Queue by going to Your Queue then clicking the Instant tab. Take a look and let us know what you think.

Brent.

Netflix now wider, more personalized

This morning we launched a few changes to the website.

The homepage has a completely new design. It has larger box shots and shows your recent activity so you can see at a glance what we've received or shipped. The movie selection and rows are personalized, meaning that they're responsive to your ratings and rentals - they'll change over time if/as your interests and tastes change. We've included explanations of why we are showing those particular movies, and making it a little easier to rate genres and sub-genres directly on the page - so you don't have to dig through the site to tell us that you love (or hate) Action Thrillers, for example.

If you click on Browse Instant, you'll see that we've carried the new design into that section as well. We hope that will make it easier to find movies and TV shows to watch instantly. These rows are also personalized and responsive, just like on the homepage.

Overall, the whole site is now a little wider so you'll see that most of the pages have a little more white space.

The Queue has an updated look, but the functionality is mostly the same, although a few things have changed slightly in design or placement. [Note for HD/Blu-ray enabled users: there's a bug and the format column isn't showing - this will be fixed in the next few days. We're also working on another bug that is causing some of you to not see recommendations or predicted ratings.]

We think these changes will make it easier for you to find movies you'll love. It's a work in progress. Take a look, and let us know what you think.

-Meghan

Participate in the Netflix Community

http://community.netflix.com
For a couple weeks we've been playing with a more dynamic and social set of community features, and about 450 people have joined up. Unlike this blog, which is primarily me talking to you (with a running commentary, of course), the Community Forums offer an opportunity for y'all to interact with each other: to share movie ideas and to create special interest groups on whatever topics that you'd like. You can ask questions that others can answer, and because many employees (and very active Netflix members) visit there as well, there are plenty of good sources for information and answers.

It improves constantly, but I think the "early adopters" have done some fine work and it might be ready for more of you to visit or "join" (yes, you must sign up when you arrive - but it's quick and painless and pretty easy to connect with your profile on Netflix). It's not part of the Netflix website (it is run at a place called Ning), but it's fun and social and all about Netflix and movies.

HD-DVD

So as not to totally hijack Meghan's posting about Search, this is a space for gripes (or cheers) of today's announcement concerning the Netflix support of the Blu-Ray HD format. I have little to add to the press release. Netflix has inventory of HD-DVD titles currently, and will continue to ship them to those who Queue them as possible. I think it was clear that the plan is simply not to continue to purchase that format, which over time will naturally phase out. Money that might have been spent on new titles in that format will shift to increasing inventory of the Blu-Ray titles, which will improve availability, and I believe that the end of an industry war will ultimately make more titles available and lower prices on associated hardware and software.

Comment here, or head to the Community forums at Ning to join the conversation already underway.

Search Updates

Hi! It's me, Meghan.

Perhaps you've noticed some changes in the search results page. I'd like to hear what you think of them.

I'll point out a couple of elements:

We added bigger box shots and better genre matches, as well as a column on the right with movies that you can watch instantly. We also show all formats - so you can tell at a glance, for any movie, if it's available on DVD (and if it's Blu-ray), to watch instantly, or to buy.

We took out the tabs to simplify the page. There's more to come, but I'm interested in hearing what you think of this set of changes. There are still some specific things that you'd like to see happen (like searching synopses, for example), and many of those items are still in progress. I hope you find it easier and more useful.

Help with Pangea Day

http://www.pangeaday.org/

Filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, best known for her films Control Room (2004) and Startup.com (2001), is putting together a world day of movies and peace which she calls Pangea Day. She won the coveted TED Prize which galvanized her dream, and now she's wondering if the Netflix Community can help her find movies (or scenes in movies) that uniquely capture the spirit of world peace or human experience. In her words:

"If you had the entire world's attention for only a few minutes, what short film or scene would you show everyone? Movies have such a remarkable way to capture the commonality in us all, sometimes so little can be so inspiring. What would you show?"

Jehane came to the Netflix Community to see if y'all could come up with moments she had not. Only 88 days until Pangea Day. Got suggestions for her?

Netflix on Your Phone?

I recently discovered that i can access netflix via:
mobile.netflix.com
it was built some time ago i think as someone's test, and i am pretty sure no one is working on it these days - but it still seems kinda useful and i thought you guys might be interested in it.

Seems like it might be good for adding movies to your Queue when you're sitting in a theater watching the trailers...

More Community Experiments

In addition to the message board we had been exploring, we've also got a Facebook page and a ning community. None of these is ideal, but watching how we all use them will give me some insights into where, ultimately, the Community pages at Netflix could evolve to. Try out any that interest you, and share your opinions.
Ning
Facebook

What Gurus Do When They Aren't Watching Movies:

In a test of their skills to solve problems that can only be addressed through working together, the movie folks on the Message Board decided to see if they could come up with the top ranking reviewers (actually, "influencers") in the Netflix Community. In just a few hours, they came up with 8 of the 10:



I'm impressed. Anyone know the missing pair?