Seeking to expand the subscriber base of its online service, the Los Gatos, California based online DVD rental service Netflix Inc. on Monday announced that it has linked up its service with the social-networking Web site, Facebook, which will allow its subscribers to share their film ratings with Facebook friends.

Netflix elaborated that a Netflix member with enabled Facebook Connect function will be able to view the ratings of one to five stars on a user's Facebook profile. The largest US mail-order movie service, however, did not disclose the financial terms of its deal with Facebook,

According to Netflix and Facebook, from Tuesday onwards, the Netflix users will be able to use Facebook Connect, the software that integrates individual Facebook pages to third-party Web sites, to share their ratings of Netflix rentals with their Facebook friends.

In the statement, Gibson Biddle, Netflix vice president of product management, said, "Movies make for great conversations." Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said, "Intuitively, the folks streaming (Netflix movies) on the laptop tend to be the under-25 crowd. You could make the leap that it is the more tech-savvy ... the early adopter crowd ... but Facebook is becoming more mainstream."

Netflix - Facebook partnership opens the fast growing online DVD rental service to 175 million active Facebook users; Facebook has recently claimed that it has more than
175 million users who used the site within the last 30 days. The deal will help Netflix expand its subscriber base.

According to Facebook, currently more than 6,000 other services use Facebook Connect. Some of the other Facebook Connect users include CBS, Disney-ABC, Discovery. com, Hulu, Citysearch, and video site Joost.