Netflix Surprises Subscribers With Long-Awaited Feature
Netflix has surprised subscribers with a long-awaited feature. Streaming services are an increasingly competitive space, and Netflix has matched this by increasingly evolving its product that more or less had little to no evolution for many years. The latest evolution includes finally giving subscribers more ways to rate the products they like, which of course not only gives users more agency in the review process but it should improve curation as well.
Previously, Netflix users had two options when rating something: a thumbs up or a thumbs down. There's still only one way to disapprove of something, but now there are two options when rating something favorably: a thumbs up and two thumbs up. Of course, the latter is the new option and it's meant to be used when users really enjoy something. According to Netflix, an option to express really liking something has been one the most highly-requested features for many years. And as alluded to, this new option will play into and improve curation as well, as it will serve as another and more specific filter.
"Members have never had as many great entertainment options as they have right now," said Netflix's Christine Doig-Cardet, of the news, via The Verge. "Being able to find the shows and movies that you're going to love is really important. We want to continue to make Netflix the place where it's easiest to choose something to watch."
Doig-Cardet continued, noting Netflix wants to eliminate "choice fatigue," which is that feeling of not knowing what to choose to watch when staring down Netflix's vast library. To this end, it sounds like more curation and customization options are coming in the future.
"We hope to end choice fatigue with new features that we're adding this year," said Doig-Cardet. "It's a huge part of where we want to invest – providing those mechanisms to give more of the control back to the user to help tailor their experience to their personal taste."
As always, feel free to share your thoughts and hot-takes in the comments section or, alternatively, hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. What do you think of this addition to Netflix? Is it helpful or is it not enough?