So, by now you've probably heard that Netflix has an API. Well, that's definitely true, and i helped build it. (Much the same way as a three year old "helps" make cookies, but i did fix some bugs and added some code.)
So, what can you do with the Netflix API? Well, basically, (nearly) anything you can do on the site. The idea was that we don't really care if you come visit Netflix.com. We're more interested in making sure you can find the movies you want, get them in your queue and be good to go. Yeah, we can't provide you with streaming movies for various reasons that involve lawyers and possibly severed body parts.
So what kinda goodness is in said API? Well, a lot of other blogs are talking about this so i'll give the talking points list:
- Allows access to data for 100,000 movie and TV episode titles on DVD as well as Netflix account access on a user’s behalf
- Netflix has more than 2 billion ratings in its database
- Netflix members rate more than 2 million movies a day
- Netflix ships more than 2 million DVDs on a typical day
- Is free
- Allows commercial use (yep, use it to make iPhone apps you sell for a million dollars. We'll give you the thumbs up.)
- Includes a REST API, a Javascript API, and ATOM feeds (more to come)
- Uses OAuth standard security to allow the subscriber to control which applications can access the service on his or her behalf
Ok, a bit more info about that last point. We use OAuth for all access. In fact, you probably want to read that article i posted about simplified oAuth so you understand what's going on. For those of you using Firefox, you may also want to go grab the Flixo plugin i wrote (yes, feel free to bitch at me if it doesn't work or is confusing).
The kinda/sorta bitch is that putting your Netflix oAuth credentials in a javascript app isn't a really good idea. You'll have to tie it back to some server where you do your own (just like you have to do with Facebook, iGoogle, Yahoo! APIs, etc.), but if you look toward the bottom of that article, i kinda talk about how to roll your own AppIDs like i do for this blog.
So, when can you get started mucking about? You can sign up to use it by going to http://developer.netflix.com.
All that said, HUGE congratulations to Mike, Michael, Priya, Anu, Jeff, Adam and all the rest of the Netflix folks that performed superhuman tasks to push this live.
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