We also subscribe to Blockbuster online after years on NetFlix. We made the move a couple years back for a few reasons like the ability to return and immediately rent movies in the store, rent video games with our 2 free coupons each month and the price was lower. In checking out NetFlix today it seems they have caught up with Blockbuster on the subscription rates but still falls short on games and in-store returns.

But is seems NetFlix is also offering a downloadable movie service and I’ve heard Blockbuster is working on the same thing. This sounds great but the NetFlix service now only allows for viewing the movies on your PC due to the copy protection. I don’t want to watch movies on my PC but on my TV. In fact, I really like what Amazon and TiVo has done in this regard providing both a rental service and the outright purchase of video downloads that I can immediately download into my TiVo. The video quality is good and the selection of content is similar to iTunes.

So the next logical move here is to combine the Blockbuster/NetFlix model and offer a queue-based, digital video subscription service. For your $17.95 per month you’d get 3 movies or TV show episodes available to watch whenever you wanted. I’d also like to see Amazon’s stupid viewing restrictions taken off so I don’t have to watch each movie within 24 hours. When I finish and delete the movie, the next one in my queue automatically downloads in the background. I think this would be a home-run and I’d probably give up on physical media altogether if something like this came out. Microsoft has the same opportunity here with their Xbox 360 Marketplace and even have the infrastructure for HD video.

So who’ll be the first to do this? Amazon, Microsoft, NetFlix, Blockbuster or maybe even Apple? I’m hoping Amazon and TiVo show the way here.

So that’s what made a call yesterday so interesting. A recruiter for a local company on my target list called about a product manager position that I found to be the best fit for my skills and interests in months. It combined internet marketing and advanced planning that seemed tailor made for the application of social media. In a word, perfect (or very nearly there).

Later in the day I got another call from the same recruiter saying the company had changed their minds about the job and will now be hiring a lower level technology developer instead. That got me thinking about the cart and horse analogy of technology and strategy. Presumably this company has chosen the cart route first, as many others have without ever considering where internet marketing is headed. Technology is a commodity right now, strategy is in very short supply.

And so it goes.

Prototype site live by this Friday… I’m excited