Netflix reverses decision, Profiles here to stay
By Steven Kim 
posted Jul 1st 2008 3:12AM
posted Jul 1st 2008 3:12AM
The small but very vocal minority of Netflix customers who made use of the Profiles feature have won a battle war, and the feature will not be going away after all. In the company's blog, the red-envelope overlords explain that the plan to kill off Profiles was intended to streamline the Netflix website by removing a feature used "by a very small minority." But the resulting hew and cry was heard loud and clear, and there are no plans to discontinue Profiles. Better yet, Netflix is now taking suggestions on how to make Profiles even better. So, put away your Cafepress "I want my profiles" shirt, wrest your incendiary cancellation letter from the postal worker and get constructive. If you've already cancelled your Netflix subscription, might we suggest a polite letter explaining how it was all a terrible misunderstanding and you now want to be reinstated at your previous rate?
[Via Slashdot]
Woo Hoo!
I'd hardly say minority
When they announced the canceling of profiles, on the digg page nearly every comment was angry at netflix because they use profiles all the time. I personally have 3 different profiles, because we all rate our movies differently and he recommendations need to be different, as does the timing of each person's rentals.
Power to the people!
Major credit goes to Netflix for listening to their customers. They didn't try and pretend that they were saving the day, in their email to customers they basically stated that they'd messed up. I've got a lot of respect for that.
Question, how do I add a new profile to my non-profile account? I searched the FAQ on Netflix and I can't figure it out :(
Hmm, if they were going to get rid of profiles because it was causing issues/delays with new features, what are we going to miss out on because R&D time will be spent on profiles?
From The Real HT Info Podcast Blog:
Here's what I think Netflix should do. They already have a tremendous web presence and the HANDS-DOWN BEST tool for finding, tracking, commenting on, and rating movies. Open the whole system up to everyone, subscribers and non-subscribers a like (right now, if you are not a paid subscriber, you can't search, rate, queue movies).
What it would cost:
-A couple servers
-A couple full-time web-coders
What Netflix gains:
-People start using Netflix to discover movies, rate them, leave comments. They make Netflix where the store their movie list (everyone has one). Let's call it 1 million new eyeballs, each visiting Netflix an average of once per day, 365 million hits a year. Those are conservative numbers.
-Netflix can implement advertising on the pages of non-subscribers. At the low-end of web advertising, you can expect $12 per 1000, so Netflix is looking at $4.4 Million per year.
-Occasionally, one of those folks will subscribe for a month, buy a used movies, or Netflix could even develop a pay as you go plan, say $3 per movie, per week. That's $12 per month, more than their lowest subscription plan and less than Blockbuster charges for 2-5days.
-More ratings means a more accurate rating system for everyone. And once again, rating are personalized. Unlike IMDB, or rotten tomatoes, a movie rated 3 stars for me may be rated 5 stars for someone else based upon Netflix's individualized weighted system.
-Netflix becomes the de facto name associated with movie rentals. Blockbuster is gone. IMDB becomes the second stop, rather than the first, for finding out more about your favorite movies.
personally i never use netflix to find movies. They always hide the new releases or big releases in all kinds of crap. If you go to the new releases tab you will see movies that are a year old! They are just trying to distract you from picking the popular ones.
Sure Movie stores do the same thing (mix old ones in the new releases) but they also have a huge wall of a 100 boxes for the blockbuster of the week.
With netflix its just a bunch of pics. This is why i go to imdb or view the blu ray releases.
Mitchell
Hopefully this doesn't double post, refreshed several times, waited about 5 mins, first post still didn't show...
Netflix New releases used to be like that, but check it out now. You can view new released by popularity (movies that showed for me were Bucket List, 10,000 BC, and Spiderwick Chronicles), as well as genre and release date (as little as 1 week old). Netflix's new release section is much improved, and rivals the video store.
What I will definitely give imdb is pre-releases. I go to imdb to find out about movies like "Tropical Thunder" and "Wanted" a month before they hit the theater, and immediately head over to netflix to save them in my queue. I then forget about them until they become available on DVD, at which point, they show up in my rental queue, ready to ship.
If Netflix would start pimping movies currently announced, and in the theater, as available to add to your queue, it would be one stop shopping for me.
Marshall
The Real HT Info Podcast
So does this mean we can return the CEO's family back to him?
Congratulations cry babies!
When I called Netflix to complain about removing profiles, the rep on the phone said that only 9% of Netflix users were using profiles. That's a pretty sizable chuck of customers (especially considering that nine percent is not just single customers, but multiple per household). If it was 0.9%, I could understand it. The thing that got me too, was that there was nothing in the works to replace profiles- apparently it was just Netflix being cheap and trying to save money on space (despite it being so cheap). I'm glad they kept it though.