In case you haven’t heard, Netflix just announced yesterday that they are removing their “Profiles” feature, which lets you split up and manage the DVD’s in your plan with separate queues. This feature has been great for Amy and I - we have the 3 disc plan and use one shared queue for movies we both want to watch, and a separate one for each of us.
It seems like a PR storm is already brewing, judging from the following links I found with a quick search:
cnet
pcmag
slashdot
gmsv
yahoo
arstechnica
savenetflixprofiles.com
It will be interesting to see if Netflix persists with the decision in light of how unpopular it seems to be. Here’s the text of the comment I left on their blog post:
I want to add my voice to the chorus of disappointed Netflix customers. The marketplace for TV/movie entertainment is certainly getting crowded; here’s a partial list of the competition:
Blockbuster Online, Amazon Unbox, Peerflix, Hulu, Joost, Azureus Vuze, the TV networks own websites, Comcast On Demand, stealing via Bittorrent, etc.
With the ill will generated by this move, it gives all of Netflix’s customers a reason to go look at the alternatives. And not just those of us who use and love the feature - anyone else who is a current or prospective customer and hears about this boneheaded move will then be wondering when their favorite feature might be next, and whether their money might be better spent elsewhere.
Finally, here’s a picture that I think sums the whole thing up nicely:
(image courtesy of worldoffail.com)