Company caves to cacophony of complaints, abandons Qwikster
Having gotten the message that virtually everyone hated the idea, Netflix has abandoned its plan to move its DVD mailing operation to a separate Web site called Qwikster. The reversal comes less than a month after the plan was announced.
(8 piles of paper replaced by iPads)
Netflix did not, however, backtrack on the accompanying price increase that also steamed its customers.
CEO Reed Hastings says in a blog post published this morning:
It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.
This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, no Qwikster.
While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.
Netflix stock jumped 6.5% on the news.
However, there was at least one group disappointed by the change: typosquatters who had hoped to exploit Qwikster.
You can’t please everyone.
Welcome regulars and passersby. Here are a few more recent buzzblog items. And, if you’d like to receive Buzzblog via e-mail newsletter, here’s where to sign up. Follow me on Twitter here and on Google+ here.
- Steve Jobs’ favorite picture of himself? Probably this one.
- My collision with Andy Rooney’s ethical blind spot (20 years ago)
- Has Google’s CEO stopped using Google+?
- Blue Screen of Death gets a new look in Windows 8.
- Happy Programmer Day, the Rodney Dangerfield of made-up holidays.
- 16 milestones of a million, billion or more … from just the past month.
- Did Google+ ban cleavage-snuggling LEGO stormtrooper?
- Imagine your neighbor built a fake Apple store.
- What Microsoft paid The Stones to help launch Windows 95.
- Tech ‘firsts’ that made a President’s day.
- 2011’s 25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries.




