There comes a time when a Netflix show is so great that you just have to share it with other people in your life. Until today, that was best accomplished by raving about Star Trek: Voyager to them in person, or sending them a text message.
Now, when someone finishes a movie or TV show on Netflix, they’ll be asked if they want to connect to Facebook and recommend it to their friends, thanks to a new feature the company launched today. Users will be able to choose from a selection of their pals, and the next time those people log in to Netflix, they’ll get a splash screen that includes the recommendation.
Facebook friends who haven’t connected their social networking account to the video streaming service will get a private message with a link to watch the show, so people don’t have to worry about spamming their friends’ walls with annoying posts. Here’s a video that shows off how the system works:
Netflix has offered Facebook integration for quite some time, along with recommendations for users based on what their friends are watching, but this manual recommendation feature is a new twist on Netflix’s old functionality. In the past, users were also able to recommend items by posting an update to their wall, but that functionality has been dropped in favor of more targeted sharing.
What frustrates me about the recommendation interface is that it doesn’t differentiate between those friends who have already connected their account and those who haven’t. I’d rather not bother those friends of mine who don’t subscribe to the service, but wouldn’t mind sharing a great episode or two with people who have chosen to link their account with Netflix.
Still, it’s another move by the company to try and expand the reach of its videos – and by extension, its customer base – in order to better compete with companies like Amazon and Hulu, as well as traditional video providers like HBO and Showtime.
