From the Netflix blog:

As we launch more than 1,000 hours of original content next year, we know we have less than 90 seconds to capture someone’s attention and get them excited about a title — that’s why we’re introducing video previews into the TV browsing experience.

What’s a video preview? For starters, video previews aren’t teasers or traditional trailers. They are specially designed video synopses that help members make faster and more confident decisions by quickly highlighting the story, characters and tone of a title. In developing this experience, our testing showed that people watched more of a story, demonstrating these previews helped them browse less and watch more.

I like the experience, I do see value in seeing curated video clips instead of a box shot or still frame.

That said, I think more data would be even more helpful. For example, I’d love a Rotten Tomatoes/Metacritic/IMDb score for each movie (in addition to the Netflix score, which I rarely agree with).

As I’m making my way through Netflix’s lists, I inevitably make my way over to IMDb, etc. to get a sense of how the movie is received by others. A low score won’t necessarily stop me from exploring a movie, but an extremely high score will keep me in the game, keep me from missing a little known but highly praised niche project.

[Via iHeartApple2]