Get a Smart Netflix Account
March 16th, 2009 by Phoebe
We’re very excited about our just launched integration with the Netflix API!
This advances Netflix’s own “quest to help you get the most out of your Netflix subscription wherever you find great movies.”
Netflix fans usually agree that “it’s challenging finding out what’s available on demand” and in general. Now you can use Jinni’s smart search and recommendations from the Movie Genome to choose what you want to watch next, with a seamless connection to Netflix.
It’s quick and easy…
Click the new “Connect to Netflix” link at the top of any page on Jinni.
Import ratings, reviews, and rental history to Jinni, to step up your Jinni recommendations and make sure we only recommend titles you haven’t yet seen. (Thanks to everyone who suggested this via feedback!)
Try a semantic search over Netflix and/or Watch Instantly:
(Smart means you can find swordfighting with special effects in the Netflix Watch Instantly catalog in one quick search.)
Then add titles to your queue or start watching with a single click:
And all this without even visiting Netflix.
Kudos to Netflix for opening their API to mutually beneficial developments. We’ve seen the Netflix buttons on the New York Times and Rotten Tomatoes - but only Jinni could bring the Movie Genome to Netflix!
Try it out and let us know what you think!
Technorati Tags: Netflix, Movie Genome, Netflix API
Popularity: 4% [?]
March 16th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
It seems like this will be a very cool feature for the site. So far, I have not been able to link my account (Took a lot of tries with Feedflix as well, when it first began using the API).
This will save a lot of time and effort for me, and hopefully speed up the process, and remove some steps of finding and adding movies to my Q.
I will keep trying to link my account later.
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March 16th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Why do you ask for my netflix username and password instead of using OAuth and their data access API?
I’m happy to tell Netflix to allow you to act on my behalf, but I don’t want to give you the key (my password) that enables you to pass that trust on to others (accidentally or intentionally).
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March 16th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Hi Scott,
We need your Netflix login specifically to import ratings. This is a result of the way Netflix constructed their API. If you choose not to give your login (which we don’t save or share), you can still import reviews and consumption history.
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March 16th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Hi Matthew,
I’m sorry you’ve run into a problem with integration. We are of course working on completely smoothing out this process - and meanwhile, I’d hope that trying again would do the trick. (Sometimes the issue is on Netflix’s side and we have limited control.)
Thanks!
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March 16th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
All day long, after many tries, I get past the “Authorize” widget, and on the next screen (With the movie trailer loading) I get this error message: “Something went wrong during the integration process. Trying again will most likely do the trick.”
I’d be interested to know if anyone not on Jinni staff was able to get this to work, so I’d know if it’s just me having the problem.
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March 17th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Hi Matthew,
Many users have been able to complete the integration process. You’re obviously not the only one to report problems, though, and as I said, we’re working very hard now to fix the issues that are causing integration errors. Thanks for giving this a try right away and I’m really sorry it turned out to be frustrating.
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March 18th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Hi Phoebe-
The Netflix API does not require you to gather user names and passwords for any API usage, you just need to redirect your users to our Auth page, which is the auth URL listed in the API docs. I imagine you’re using this same URL but posting the user name and password vs. just letting the HTML render for the user.
Feel free to contact us in the developer forums at http://developer.netflix.com for assistance with the API.
Cheers,
Mike
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March 22nd, 2009 at 2:30 am
Mike,
To clarify, we’re working with the Netflix API on all features except the ratings import, which we understood is not supported by the API. Note that users can opt not to import ratings, in which case the integration goes ahead without an email/password being required.
Best,
Phoebe
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July 6th, 2009 at 5:38 am
[...] if you are a big Netflix user – Jinni integrates well with the service including the importing of Netflix data and ratings and the ability to add a movie from Jinni to [...]
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