Netflix is hiring like crazy, and for good reason — the company has suddenly become a living room powerhouse, sucking up as much as 20% of all internet bandwidth at night as subscribers watch Netflix via streaming video. And last week, Netflix unveiled a $7.99/month streaming-only plan for subscribers who don’t want DVDs in their mailbox.
At the bottom of Netflix’s long list of job openings are new engineering positions in social media — experts in Facebook integration and social systems. This after Netflix announced earlier this month that it’s moving Mike Hart, who created the Netflix API, to head up a new social media engineering team.
The new team can’t come soon enough. For a company so obsessed about its recommendation engine — with a pretty strong Facebook following, to boot — the lack of meaningful Facebook integration seems to be a glaring omission. Netflix does allow you to publish ratings/reviews to your Facebook wall (it’s buried on the site), but I would love to see movie recommendations and reviews from Facebook friends integrated on Netflix.com much like RottenTomatoes.com. Netflix tried it before without Facebook, but pulled the plug earlier this year when few Netflix subscribers were using the internal service.
Now things seem to be changing. Hart hasn’t given any timelines for new social features, but we hope Netflix goes beyond social recommendations on Netflix.com to shared social viewing, like virtual viewing parties tied to Twitter. On the TV set.
Related Netflix stories:
– Netflix a fast-growing rival to Hollywood and cable (NY Times)
– Blockbuster goes after Netflix with new “28 days” ad campaign (LA Times)