10 Incredible Facts You Didn't Know About Netflix
10. Netflix Has Changed American Language
The queue is a bit of a time honoured tradition in the UK. Brits are so damn good at queuing up for things in an orderly and patient manner that they should really stop pretending football is the national sport, and change it to the one activity in which they are doubtlessly the world leaders. Queueing is so taken for granted in the UK (and in her colonies) that the word itself is barely even thought about. Queueing is simply that thing you do. That's not the case in the USA.
In the USA you dont queue for the things, you stand in line. But as Netflix has exploded in popularity over the past two decades more and more Americans have started adopting the distinctly British term, to the point where its new ubiquity has become the focus of multiple news articles and podcasts, all fascinated by how such a distinctly British term, could so rapidly catch hold in a country that stubbornly refuses to speak English correctly.
Netflix started using the term queue because in its early development days, the company's chief product officer Neil Hunt used the word in the programming without even really thinking. Hunt is a Brit himself so to him the word came as naturally as talking about the weather. Inevitably as the service grew and grew it caused more questions from users who had absolutely no concept of what the term queue meant, which of course caused headaches for the ever-growing staff who had to translate English English to American English.
Regardless of the initial (and at times, ongoing) confusion though, the word has taken enough of a hold in the American psyche that tens of millions now use the word without even thinking. And that sea-change is all thanks to Netflix and an absent-minded mistake by an early developer. It's probably only a matter of time though until it's soon spelled cue.