I feel like Netflix is not giving us a straight answer on why they completely removed the Friends features from their service. It was half the reason I even use their service. One commenter left one good theory, but I'm curious if there are other good theories:
"Here's why I think NF is killing the friends features. The company is buying fewer DVDs because it's moving towards total streaming. The 'recommendations' the site pushes are only those that are 'available now' or on Instant Watch so the company doesn't have to buy more inventory. If customers no longer have the friend features it makes it harder to find 'unique, classic, independent, etc movies N-F doesn't want to buy anyway."
http://blog.netflix.com/2010/03/friends-update.html#Blog1_cmt-4755499758062243309