Blockbuster Versus Netflix
Most everyone has heard of Blockbuster Video simply due to it’s nearly uncontested reign in the movie rental industry throughout the 80’s and 90’s, save for Hollywood Video’s appearance in the mid-90’s. Netflix took the industry by storm in the very late 90’s with it’s never-before-seen online rentals. Renting a movie on the Internet and having it mailed to one’s home was an uncomfortable concept for some, but for others, it was like the movie rental industry had finally reached a place where it would be able to offer services that matched their online life-styles. Blockbuster soon caught wind of this change and followed suit. So, that’s pretty much it regarding the history of each of these two rental giants. Sorry, Hollywood Video, you apparently didn’t want to play this round…
Now we come to who is better and why in what areas. Both obviously have their strengths, they are both doing quite well. Netflix seems to be doing a tad better in the market, but we’ll save that for another article.
| Blockbuster | Netflix | |
|---|---|---|
| In-Store Renting | yes | no |
| Online Renting | yes | yes |
| RSS | no | yes |
| Ability to control queue by external means | no | yes |
I’m going to be focusing on the last two parts of that chart. Why? Two reasons, which tie together quite nicely. 1) Because they are important to me and I’m the author of this blog, that and you’re not here to hear your opinions. 2) Because Blockbuster is just about ready to release the new version of their Online store. It is currently in beta and, I must say, it looks pretty slick. I have no been using it as if yet but plan to from now on.
Netflix has tempted me to try them out on a few occasions due to one thing. They have an API available which many people have taken advantage of and made software, mash-ups and widgets which allow one to control one’s queue from a tool other than the netflix website. If Blockbuster did not allow me to rent movies from their stores as part of my monthly subscription, they would have lost my business a loooong time ago. But they do, so they have been safe. It does not stop me, on the other hand, from liking what I could be doing with Netflix.
So, what does this new beta site have to do with Netflix’s API? It seems as though Blockbuster has finally come into their own and is now providing, at the very least, RSS feeds of their newest movies. They still don’t seem to have a generic feed for their customers’ queues, but I will give them a few months after the new site’s launch to see what happens. It could very easily be done securely, it’s really just a matter of whether or not they want to put forth the effort.