Hulu Chases Netflix, Makes It Easier to Find What You Want to Watch
Streaming service adds new personalized Watchlist that’s supposed to make content discovery easier
Joan E. Solsman | April 15, 2016 @ 9:00 AM
Last Updated: April 15, 2016 @ 9:07 AM
Hulu
If you’ve ever pulled up your Hulu app and couldn’t find anything you felt like watching, the streaming service hopes the new feature it launched on Friday will show what you want to see — before you give up and hop over to Netflix’s app instead.
Hulu’s new Watchlist queue is meant to personalize content recommendations based on the shows you actually watch, what viewers like you watched and what shows are connected by things like plot elements. It basically combines the features of its old Queue, Favorites and Shows You Watch sections in one place.
It moves Hulu one step closer to Netflix, widely seen as one of the video industry’s leaders on the tricky problem of discovery. Streaming sites like Hulu and Netflix must aggregate tons of content appealing to every kind of person to draw a big enough subscriber base. The challenge is figuring out how to present the right bits and pieces from its huge catalog to each member.
Hulu said each user’s Watchlist would change every time they check it. The feature dynamically tailors the order of content to match how each an individual watches TV and makes suggestions like shows a user hasn’t seen before.
The feature, which will roll out progressively to Hulu’s users in the coming weeks, will automatically suggest that users watch the newest episodes of any shows they follow and alert them as to where they left off, allowing them to save any episode, clip, movie or show that they’d like to watch later by clicking a “+” or “add to Watchlist” button.
'Game of Thrones' 360-Degree Map: 5 Easter Eggs, Clues and Anatomically Correct Surprises (Photos)
The official “Game of Thrones” Facebook page has posted a 360-degree-video version of the opening-credits sequence. The familiar 3D mechanical map flies around King’s Landing, Winterfell, the Wall, Braavos, Meereen and Dorne, and includes some surprises and possible hints. Here they are.
As the camera flies toward the familiar elevator on The Wall, a wolf is perched on an ice block to the left. Its pelt looks too dark for Jon Snow's direwolf Ghost, but the Stark family's sigil is a grey direwolf. Could it be a clue that one of the Starks will appear at the Wall?
HBO/Screenshot
Speaking of the Starks' stigil: It's hard to spot, but their grey direwolf has returned on top of Winterfell. The flayed-man sigil had roosted there since the Boltons overtook command of the Starks' ancestral home. Will Winterfell finally be returned to Stark control?
HBO/Screenshot
As the map approaches Braavos, the coin that typically rolls into a building, symbolizing the Iron Bank, is missing from the interactive map. Could the Iron Bank's coffers be in jeopardy?
HBO/Screenshot
Oops. The body of water just beyond The Eyrie is supposed to be labeled The Bite, but the 360-degree version accidentally plops an island in the middle of its name.
HBO/Screenshot
In what was surely intended to be a dramatic camera swoop, the interactive maps flies viewers right between the legs of the monolithic Braavos guardian statue. But the effect isn't quite as grand if you look up to see that Braavos' great Titan clearly goes commando.
HBO/Screenshot
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Now’s your chance to take a peek under the kilt of the Braavos guardian statue
The official “Game of Thrones” Facebook page has posted a 360-degree-video version of the opening-credits sequence. The familiar 3D mechanical map flies around King’s Landing, Winterfell, the Wall, Braavos, Meereen and Dorne, and includes some surprises and possible hints. Here they are.