From shopping to music, the overload of information on the Web has been shaped and ordered by recommendation engines. There are even tools like the browser extension GetGlue that purport to sail the entire recommendations ocean. But one very important aspect of the online experience has been overshadowed: video. Milan- and Tel Aviv-based Bee.tv, currently in beta, has introduced a proprietary, cross-platform recommendation service to personalize television, film and video viewing. Bee.tv aspires to do for video what Pandora or Last.fm do for audio.
“Bee.tv employs a proprietary algorithm that includes contextual and semantic analysis, collaborative filtering, and thematic push to deliver personalized TV, movie and video content recommendations.”
I signed up for the beta and was interested to see if my weird taste in TV and movies would track at all. I like Blazing Saddles, Chuck, The Beekeeper, Erich Rohmer, Rick Steves, Cracked.com and A Blog About History, so heaven only knows what they’d make of that.
You chime in on eight movies from Superbad to Casablanca. I wound up with The Bourne Supremacy (sure), Observe and Report (eh, probably not) and All Through the Night (never heard of it). It didn’t blow my mind but it wasn’t crazily out of the park either. Presumably, as I use the service, and rate more offerings, the engine will hone in on my weirdness and before you know it, voila! Kentucky Fried Movie and Cities in the Mist.
Recommendations are broken into TV, Web, Mobile and iPad. A recommendation filtering mechanism can monitor your preferences.
YouTube and most online video viewing sites have recommendation algorithms, but Bee.tv is a stand-alone site, with an emphasis on the recommendation process.
The site provides you with a place to purchase each of its recommendations that are for sale, but unlike Hulu, say, it does not seem to be a platform for free programming.
Bee.tv’s partners include Apple, YouTube, Tribune Media, Amazon, broadcast and cable networks and various online content creators.
