Netflix Reverses Decision and Keeps Multiple Queues

In a surprising turn of events last week, Netflix decided to reverse its decision and keep Profiles, therefore maintaining the current system of having multiple DVD rental queues on the same account.

This move came on the heels of a swift and loud complaint and counter-argument movement on the Net against Netflix’s announcement to end Profiles/Multiple Queues. An online petition against the move garnered over 3,000 signatures, along with hundreds of negative comments on Netflix’s development blog, and many private blogs posting articles in protest, including designartculture.com, located here.

I applaud Netflix for continuing to be a leader in web culture; it is always refreshing when a large corporation listens to the crowd. I’m sure many will still find a bone to pick as to why this move was enacted in the first place, including the  sudden announcement without a proper description of why. However, we will not be among that group, because no one is ever perfect when it comes to performing their job. As has been said many times before, being great doesn’t mean you never fail, it simply means that you are good at fixing your mistakes (and listening to your customers’ complaints).

Instead, we would like to suggest that Netflix finds a way to more effectively utilize the excellent tool (unique to Netflix) of multiple queues. They mentioned in their development blog that a minority of users utilized multiple queues, which is really a shame, as it is one of their best features. One idea would be have easily accessible queue tabs in the navigation. If the account only has one queue, those tabs could be replaced by an “Add Queue” button. But Netflix can decide how to best fix this as they have done with similar problems over the years.