If you’re like us, you’ve been known to unwind by watching streaming shows and movies on sites like Netflix and Sidereel. In one night we can traverse multiple video and TV networks in our ongoing quest to discover the best streaming content. While most of these services offer a selection of titles, there’s always room for further discovery. Below are four services that take the guess work out of your evenings:
Jinni: After a long road to public launch, movie recommendation service Jinni finally released its public beta this morning. Riffing on Pandora’s Music Genome Project recommendation system, Jinni offers users a chance to discover new content through its Movie Genome Project. ReadWriteWeb covered Jinni’s beta release in January and we were impressed with the site’s many search filters including genres, mood and plot. Since then, the site has added more than 30,000 titles and integration with Netflix and Hulu.
Clerkdogs: Clerkdogs is the site best known for offering members recommendations from knowledgeable video clerks. Members choose the movie characteristics they’re most interested in and the service recommends new movies for discovery. ReadWriteWeb covered Clerkdogs in late 2008. Since then the company has scaled its rating and tagging services to more than 25 ex-video-store clerks. While the clerks spend an average of 1 hour reviewing each movie, it has still managed to amass more than 11,000 titles across multiple genres. The service offers integration with Amazon, IMDB and Blockbuster.
Toobla: Although not specific to movies and television content, Toobla offers users a great way to discover visual content. Co-founded by former Digg VP of Technology Brian Link, Toobla offers a unique twist on bookmarking by giving users a chance to fill “visual folders”. Similar to Digg, members install a bookmarklet and add content to their folders as they browse the web. This service is particularly appealing for TV and film content because friends can share folders full of video content regardless of the hosting service. Users can also choose to import media from YouTube, Digg and Delicious. Once you’ve created a folder, you can share your collection of videos via Twitter and email, or you can embed a link in your website.
Nanocrowd: This service offers users a chance to choose movies by “nanogenre”. Users type in a movie they already like as well as a nanogenre like “bloodbath carnage mindless” or “vampire creepy darkness. From here the service creates a custom list of suggestions. Users can add the suggestions to their “2 c list”, click to see a longer description or access the movie via Netflix or Amazon. One of the great features of this site is that you don’t need to become a member to access the search results.
Photo Credit: Flickr User Bava Tuesdays
