Considering how successful Netflix has been these past few years, it’s obvious that streaming movies and television shows it a lucrative business. Just as Google took on the likes of Spotify with Google Play Music All Access, it looks like the company is at least considering doing the same thing to Netflix. While it’s far from confirmed, and we have very little to actually go on, the move would make a lot of sense for Google, and consumers could always use a better alternative to Netflix. Not to say that there’s anything wrong with Netflix, but when your biggest competitors are Amazon Prime Instant Video and Hulu Plus, it means the market isn’t very competitive.
A strange question from Google inside their Google Opinion Rewards app is leaving some scratching their heads. During one of Google’s many surveys, they ask users, “Do you have a Google monthly movie pass?” Google+ user Hugo Seijas saw this and quickly posted the above screenshot to his page wondering if he perhaps stumbled upon something. Why is it so weird? Google is essentially asking users if they have a subscription to a service that doesn’t even exist — but why? Before you read too much into the question, our own Derek Ross remains skeptical. He points out that Google often times plants test questions in Opinion Rewards just to make sure a user is answering honestly and not just tapping any answer in hopes of gaining a reward as quickly as possible. We’ve also seen reports from other users who have been asked if they’ve ever visited fictional places and other planted questions. Still, this seems different in that it’s so vague. It’s simply not a very good test question to check if someone is paying attention in that a casual Android user could easily mistake this for Netflix running on their “Google phone” or something similar. Now, we’re not saying this is a hint of things to come, but if Google really was planing an actual Google Play Monthly Movie Pass, it certainly would make for some interesting competition. Can’t let Netflix have all the fun, right?
