Netflix addicts, you’ve gotta check this one out: Qup is a neat new service that alerts you via email when Netflix adds new videos to its streaming catalog. Notifications can be customized, and the resulting emails can be used to start watching straight from your inbox. Check out a screenshot below:
Qup users can decide whether they’d like to get an email every time Netflix adds new titles, or just daily or even weekly. The results can also be filtered further by adding minimum Netflix and Rotten Tomatoes scores, so your inbox won’t be flooded with B-movie fare.
Also neat: Users can simply add any title that catches their eye to their Instant Queue, which even works when you’re not logged into Netflix, for example while browsing the emails on your mobile device or in the office. This feature also explains the name, which is pronounced “queue-up.”
Qup developer Michael Bleigh told me via email that he built the service during a Kansas City hackathon called Hack the Midwest, where it promptly won the best in show prize. “I built it because I wanted to use it myself,” he told me, and added that he plans to add more filters for further customization soon, including Metacritic scores and genre-based filters.
He also has some more ambitious plans that could take Qup even further. One includes a wish queue that he described this way:
“You add any movie or show you want to it (even if Netflix doesn’t have it) and if Netflix ever picks it up we add it to your queue immediately and send you a notification.”
Also interesting are his plans for what he calls Qup anywhere:
“Text, email, or tweet @qup with the name of a movie and Qup will add it to your Wish Q or your Netflix Queue if it’s available. Great for when you’re out with friends and they say ‘You haven’t seen X?’ but then you forget what X was by the time you’re home.”
There are of course numerous tools already out there that help you to manage your Instant Queue and discover new content on Netflix, but I think Qup is definitely worth a look, because it’s squarely focused on getting the notification piece of the puzzle right.
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