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Retiring the Netflix Public API

developer.netflix.com

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Re: Retiring the Netflix Public API

#51

Post by pdenya »

qworty wrote: post #32
parley wrote: post #4

I too am very disappointed and agree with the other commenter who said they are big enough that they don't have to worry about closing it. When I realized I wanted an API key they had already stopped handing them out, and now the axe falls again. I don't argue it's not within their right, it's just sad. I have upwards of 1200 graded movies in another service that I used for a long time and that has a public API. Nowa…

I agree it is stupid that data you enter into a service, which you cannot know if it will remain (and that means every service), you can't extract to do with it what you want (log it yourself). It just gives me a better feeling if I can extract my netflix watching habbits and ratings for my own usage instead of relying on their ways (but their way isn't bad). Also I just recently tried Mopidy again, a year ago it wou…

They might get some flack for suddenly being less open about data. Adding a [download my ratings] button on the account page seems much less ambitious than maintaining an API so that might be on the table in the future.

Re: Retiring the Netflix Public API

#52

Post by [deleted] »

qworty wrote: post #32
parley wrote: post #4

I too am very disappointed and agree with the other commenter who said they are big enough that they don't have to worry about closing it. When I realized I wanted an API key they had already stopped handing them out, and now the axe falls again. I don't argue it's not within their right, it's just sad. I have upwards of 1200 graded movies in another service that I used for a long time and that has a public API. Nowa…

I agree it is stupid that data you enter into a service, which you cannot know if it will remain (and that means every service), you can't extract to do with it what you want (log it yourself). It just gives me a better feeling if I can extract my netflix watching habbits and ratings for my own usage instead of relying on their ways (but their way isn't bad). Also I just recently tried Mopidy again, a year ago it wou…

[deleted]

Re: Retiring the Netflix Public API

#53

Post by ronilan »

colinbartlett wrote: post #7

This is a good reminder to all of us that any API key is just that: A key. A key to a lock you don't own and a lock that can be changed at any time.

Indeed.

Any API key is just that. A key. A key to the stairs up the shoulders of giants. A place that can be shrugged. From which one can fall. But also from which one can see further. Further even than the sacred concept of "ownership".

Re: Retiring the Netflix Public API

#54

Post by spacehome »

ricardobeat wrote: post #20

> To better focus our efforts and to align them with the needs of our global member base, we will be retiring the public API program What a sad statement, there is no need for this corporate-drone talk. "We're shutting it down because it doesn't make us money, and we think we will be better off being a closed platform" would have ringed much better, not necessarily in these words. Honesty is always appreciated.

Are you kidding? Honesty is practically never appreciated.

Re: Retiring the Netflix Public API

#56

Post by mcherm »

There is something here that I really don't understand.

Why would they want to shut it down?

With something like Twitter, I get it. In order to make money off their customers' use of Twitter's free service, they need to be in control of the customers' experience (so they can do things like show ads). So they pulled this intentional bait-and-switch where they screwed over the independent developers who had made Twitter successful in the first place, but they did it because they needed to in order to make their profits.

The Netflix API story is different. First of all, APIs were always an additional offering: Netflix was grown on the backs of their mail-order business and third party apps that could just as well have been done via partnerships instead of open APIs. So they're at least not screwing over the one who brought them to the dance.

But the APIs have been a source of good will from the developer community (probably all out of proportion to the number of actual tools built using them). And the APIs are not harming Netflix's income stream in any way. (They might, in a tiny way, be helping, but I accept that this effect is negligible.) So where is the motivation to retire them?

Does it really cost so much to maintain the APIs? After all, they need to maintain them for Instant Watcher, Fanhattan, Yidio, NextGuide, Flixster, Can I Stream It?, FeedFliks, and Instant Watch Browser for Netflix. So it's not like they'll save the cost of keeping the APIs running. And I don't see how this can be about the cost of managing communications with the public -- if, instead of announcing that the APIs were now closing down, Netflix had announced that the primary support channel was now a public forum where users could help each other I doubt anyone would have batted an eyelash.

So help me out here: what is the motivation?

Re: Retiring the Netflix Public API

#57

Post by [deleted] »

mcherm wrote: post #56

There is something here that I really don't understand. Why would they want to shut it down? With something like Twitter, I get it. In order to make money off their customers' use of Twitter's free service, they need to be in control of the customers' experience (so they can do things like show ads). So they pulled this intentional bait-and-switch where they screwed over the independent developers who had made Twitte…

[deleted]

Re: Retiring the Netflix Public API

#60

Post by rmrfrmrf »

hyperliner wrote: post #38

I don't know what is the big deal. It's as if these startups were in a Bachelor/Bachelorette style of competition and everybody but a few lost. It's not like the terms and conditions said the API would be there forever or for everybody.

People devoted their time and energy to building things that serve to give Netflix free publicity.
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