Search... for something like this!

I have been playing recently with several satellite TV set top boxes. They have their own race... started probably some time ago by TiVo. Play / pause live programming / replay / watch one while recording another... Yes, television, even in its classic form, has changed... Many service providers already offer movies on demand...

But to be honest, despite virtually thousands of satellite channels, I watch TV quite seldom.... And it is not so easy for me to find something I really like... I like movies, not necessarily of American origin, but French or Italian... With some eminent characters like Jean Reno for example ;) But EPG (Electronic Program Guide) services offered by TV service / platform providers do not stand the test. They are organized in structured directories and usually do not allow search based on various attributes. Tonight I would like to find a channel playing a movie of particular genre or with an actor of my choice... It ain't possible - what I have is just titles... and when I select a title on a EPG screen, then I can get more description... But it is just not possible to browse all of them one by one... Structured directories should have been gone long time ago... We all know how to use free form search...

The above also applies to other areas of our lives. Since the first Apple iPhone the smartphone market keeps on erecting application stores - and again all of them are organized in structured directories. Google has recently said such stores have no future - the future is search. And I may agree... Application stores are great as enablers for millions of creative application builders... But on the other hand they are controlled walled gardens and we all know - people do not like walled gardens... Smartphone companies repeat now the errors of various different service providers - they mix content with conduit, artificially limiting the users and the number of applications and services.

The other discovery model I like is the one embraced by Pandora, the music streaming service. You start by selecting a theme - be it an artist name or a song, then it tries to pick up something similar and allows you to rate the served selection - thumb up or thumb down. And by collecting your thumbs, after a while it usually starts playing only songs you like. For a long time I have been waiting for the Google Reader to start serving me Pandora - style news. Currently I have to specify the exact RSS sources and organize them in a structured directory. Why doing that instead of rating the incoming news thumb up or thumb down, and letting Google Reader select the next ones in line...? Well... last week I saw a little light in that tunnel - the Google Reader introduced a small "Like" icon at the bottom of every news item. I just hope this is just the beginning and ultimately they will offer Pandora - style RSS - based news service...