Today GetGlue, the service that lets users “check-in” to watching TV shows, reading books, listening to music and even thinking about products, announced major updates for its website and iPhone app.
If you haven’t heard of GetGlue, don’t worry. Here’s how it works: After you’ve checked in to the entertainment you’re experiencing, GetGlue tells you who else is thinking about it, how many times you’ve checked-in, where it is trending on the site and how many others are currently checked into it. It connects people around entertainment, a trend that is increasingly becoming more mainstream as social TV expands. GetGlue saw an 800% increase from the beginning of the year to September.
Users can now vote, reply and check-in right from the stream, and preview a show, movie or artist.
The conversation tab brings up friends and comments from fans that are also checked-in at the moment. Because users can keep up with conversations in real-time, this feature seems like it will become a natural part of social TV.
In this update, both GetGlue iPhone app and GetGlue.com now feature guides based on a user’s own tastes, friends’ activity and GetGlue community trends. These guides make recommendations tailored to the user’s taste graph, focusing on shows, movies and music. In the redesign, GetGlue.com will now look more like the app.
One major site feature update to note on GetGlue.com is the check-in button, which is now located in the top navigation bar.
GetGlue users feel comfortable telling their friends what they’re watching, listening to and reading whereas doing a similar thing on Facebook makes most feel uncomfortable.
Last year GetGlue partnered with entertainment companies such as HBO, Showtime, Fox and PBS, among others. Earlier this year, it hit the million user mark. In April, GetGlue received a record number of check-ins,which was right around the same time it improved its mobile app, added badges and more. And all this without instituting frictionless sharing.
GetGlue started off as a browser extension, later transforming into a semantic and social recommendation service combined with an emotionally charged space for discussion around popular shows and movies. Earlier this year, GetGlue made a shift toward location, adding geo-location sports check-ins and Foursquare integration.
