Netflix Browsing Gets Embedded Video Previews

By Steve Safran 

We’ve all been there. We scroll up and down the Netflix home page, looking at TV show and movie icons, hoping something will catch our eye. Now, Netflix is introducing a novel feature to help users see more about a program than just its icon: A video preview, right on the home page.

This isn’t a trailer like you’d see for a new show or movie. It’s a “video synopsis” in the upper right of the screen. Check out this quick video from Netflix, and you’ll see:

According to a Netflix blog post, this new feature is meant to make video selection easier:

(The video previews) help members make faster and more confident decisions by quickly highlighting the story, characters and tone of a title. In developing this experience, our testing showed that people watched more of a story, demonstrating these previews helped them browse less and watch more.

Advertisement

The company is getting ready to launch more than 1,000 hours of original content in 2017 with a long-term goal of having more than 50% original content. Netflix writes it is rolling out the feature today. Depending on how you get Netflix, you’ll see the new interface over the course of the next several weeks or months.

Advertisement