New Look and Feel for the Netflix Website (Disaster)

Netflix ^ | June 8, 2011 | Michael Spiegelman

[RBW in PA]

Hey there,

This is Michael Spiegelman, Director of Product Management at Netflix. I’m excited to announce that we’ve updated parts of the Netflix website with a new look and feel to make it easier for you to find something to watch instantly.

Starting today, most members who watch instantly will see a new interface that provides more focus on the TV shows & movies streaming from Netflix. The title images are larger, there are more of them on the page and play buttons appear when you hover your mouse over the title images. Star ratings, information and other functions are available when you mouse over the title images. We’ve also made some changes to several pages on the site: adding more rows, and filling out the rows with more TV shows & movies, which you can find by hovering your mouse over the end of a row.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to refine and improve our site to keep giving you more of what you want: great TV shows & movies that you can find and watch instantly.

[RBW in PA]

On June 8th Netflix updated their Watch Instantly section of their website apparently without any customer input. They did a horrible job and there are now over 3,853 complaints on their blog and no response from management. Hopefully, this gets picked up by the MSM (I know) and puts some pressure on them.

[mnehring]

I just noticed that going over to see the new releases. I don’t think it is that bad, it is kind of like the cover flow on iTunes. I just wish they would have an option to re-size the images.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I just signed back up this weekend and the site doesn’t appear to work with Firefox anymore. I switched to Chrome and it works OK, but I don’t like it.

[DeFault User]

I now have in my Netflix list “Classic Romantic Mistaken-Identity Movies”, “Heartfelt Dramas based on contemporary literature”, and “Independent Gambling Movies”. I suppose I must have watched something that matched those criteria, but where is the “Something the wife will watch and not bore me to death” category?

[I still care]

The netflix website is very bad, always has been. A great product, but hard to browse.

I use instantwatcher.com always rather than netflix.

[itsahoot]

They changed their rates as well, sort of unnoticed. You can no longer view content on multiple devices. You now have to sign up for 1, 2, or 3 disk options to view on more than one device.

No notice whatsoever until you try to watch on two devices. Until they can actually do closed captions or titles, the service is of little value to me.

[LSAggie]

Being relatively cheap, we like ShareTV.org.

It's free.

Try Doc Martin, it's a British show about a surgeon who develops a bloodphobia and becomes a GP in the small town of Portwen, Cornwall. He has the charm of most surgeons and this is rather offputting to the locals. It's not a chick-flick series. The first three seasons are free and hubby and I HAD to buy season 4 from Amazon just to see what was going to happen.

[CIB-173RDABN]

My home page is Netflik.

I noticed the change and just adapted to it.

I have pretty much watched everything they have that I care to watch so I am usually only interested in their newest material.

I have the cheapest service they offer $10 a month for one disk at a time. This is not a problem as I usually just watch the instant (streaming) movies.

I keep a bunch in my instant que and use them as background stuff while working in my home office.

[Longbow1969]

Yes, I noticed changes just yesterday and didn’t like them.

[NewHampshireDuo]

Ping

[DeFault User]

Thanks. We’ll try Doc Martin. We watch some of the British series on PBS or BBC America. The only problem is that some of the characters with regional accents require the use of closed captioning to understand the dialog. ;o) Oxford and posh accents are fine but others that range from Colonel Blimp to cockney are frustrating.

I suppose it’s similar to asking a Brit to understand an Appalachian accent.

[dangerdoc]

Bump

[BwanaNdege]

“I use instantwatcher.com always rather than netflix.”

thanks for the link!

[Do Be]

where is the “Something the wife will watch and not bore me to death” category?

Please let me know if you discover this category. I need it desperately.

[AndrewB]

[sportutegrl]

I guess I am the gold plated user. I have 3 movies at a time, plus Blu Ray. When something new comes out like Gnomeo and Juliet, If I have it at the top of the queue, I get it one day before the official Netflix release date, always. We watch on two tvs with PS3 and Wii, on 4 notebooks, sometimes 4 watchers at a time, and take a computer on the road and watch flix in the hotel by connecting a laptop to the hotel tv.

But, for us, Netflix doesn't cost money, it saves money. Before NF I was paying 200/month for TV+Internet. Now I have expanded basic and upgraded Internet for about 100/month. We are not sports fans and everything we want to watch is on the 'flix

Finally, I sunk my entire Roth IRA last year, (5K) into Netflix stock at 50/share and it is now trading at 250/share. Netflix has been very, very good to me.

[LSAggie]

Why do I want to visit that website, exactly???

[AndrewB]

sorry. Bad hot link.

[LSAggie]

That’s okay. I did a search through AVG and found it. I’m a little insulted that you think I’m a babyboomer, but then again, I don’t think an elderly driver is 67, either.