{"id":659143,"date":"2013-05-20T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2013-05-20T16:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=646996"},"modified":"2013-05-20T12:00:41","modified_gmt":"2013-05-20T16:00:41","slug":"nextguides-new-website-turns-your-friends-facebook-likes-into-your-tv-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/659143","title":{"rendered":"NextGuide\u2019s new website turns your friends\u2019 Facebook likes into your TV guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Francisco-based Dijit launched the web version of it\u2019s NextGuide app Monday<\/a>, and after playing with it for a while, I have to say the company may be onto something here.<\/p>\n

Dijit launched an iPad version of NextGuide last summer<\/a>, aiming to reinvent the traditional TV guide with universal search for movies and TV content across live TV and iPad apps from Netflix, Hulu, iTunes and others. Users of the app can also define searches for very specific interests and get recommendations for any content related to their hobby or their hometown.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>It all makes sense – but I just don\u2019t find myself frequenting the iPad app very much. Maybe it\u2019s the fact that I just don’t feel like I don’t have enough choices for things to watch. Maybe it\u2019s due to my binge viewing habits: while I\u2019m burning through a new show (mind you, burning a very relative term if you have a job and a family), I \u00a0don\u2019t look for much else, and don\u2019t need to know what\u2019s on. Or maybe it\u2019s just that the app is a bit too complicated for its own good.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s something about NextGuide\u2019s new web app sibling that is very intriguing. For one thing, it is a lot simpler than the iPad app, and it feels less like you have to turn thousand nobs before you get good results.<\/p>\n

But the app also feels a lot more social, thanks to its Facebook integration: Users can easily browse the movies and TV shows any of their Facebook friends have liked on the social network, no matter whether these contacts are using NextGuide or not. The results are displayed in a Pinterest-like fashion, inviting you to aimlessly browse around and check out what your friends like to watch.<\/p>\n

Once you find something that catches your interest, you\u2019re able to see which services it is playing on, add it to your own Watchlist or subscribe to email alerts to be notified when new episodes are available online, or on the air. Essentially, it turns your friends\u2019 Facebook likes into your TV guide, and that\u2019s pretty cool. Oh, and you can also compile a list of your own favorites to display to the world.<\/p>\n

Pre-populating a video discovery service with data from Facebook certainly isn\u2019t new – but there\u2019s something about this kind of Pinterest-like approach that just invites browsing. And TV fans will appreciate that their friends’ likes, which are otherwise scattered on Facebook, are all brought together in one place.<\/p>\n

Sure, there\u2019s still room to improve NextGuide on the web. Recommending the right resources to play content is one of those things. For example, for a show like the Daily Show<\/em>, it only recommends Hulu, Amazon and iTunes, even though full episodes are also available on the show\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

But even with those shortcomings, I have to say that I enjoyed playing with the website, and I can see myself coming back to it much more often than to the app.<\/p>\n

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