You no longer have to ask your friends what they are watching on Netflix. Instead, you can now simply peer over their digital shoulder.
Netflix announced Wednesday that it will begin offering United States customers the ability to connect their Netflix account to Facebook to see what their friends are watching on the video rental service. They will also be able to share their own favorite videos.
In a blog post on the company’s Web site, Cameron Johnson, director of product innovation at Netflix, said that the latest sharing feature would offer two main views: customers’ favorite videos and those that they have recently watched on the service.
“You’ll see what titles your friends have watched in a new “Watched by your friends†row and what they have rated four or five stars in a new “Friends’ Favorites†row,†Mr. Johnson wrote. “Your friends will also be able to see what you watch and ratehighly.â€
For people worried that a secret show will appear in their Facebook timeline for all to see, Netflix gives people explicit options to decide what they share to Facebook.
“You are in control of what gets shared. You can choose not to share a specific title by clicking the “Don’t Share This†button in the player,†Mr. Johnson wrote.
The sharing feature has been available in other countries for some time. But before Netflix could enable it in the United States, the company had to persuade Congress to amend a 1988 law, called the Video Privacy Protection Act, that prohibited video service providers from sharing customers’ viewing history without their consent.
It’s unclear whether American consumers really want to see what their inflated social networks are watching on television. Although the idea sounds great, if your Aunt Mildred is watching World War I docu! mentaries, and your nephew Luca is watching SpongeBob SquarePants, your social feed might not be very useful.
But investors thought the news was great for Netflix, sending the company’s shares up 7 percent in midday trading on Wednesday.
