Social networking out, streaming video in

Social networking out, streaming video in
Hulu was praised for giving web users what they were after — on-demand TV shows — without having to turn to illegal file-sharing.

“Determined not to let what happened to the music industry happened to Hollywood, NBC and Fox teamed up,” TIME said of the site’s creation.

“If it aired recently on NBC, ABC or Fox, you’ll probably find it archived on Hulu.”

Hulu is unavailable in Australia due to licensing restrictions, but most local networks have launched similar sites since the success of ABC’s excellent iView service.

SBS, Seven, Nine and Ten now all stream full episodes of key shows — All Saints, Sea Patrol, Rush to name a few — on their websites.

The other trend on TIME‘s list was towards websites promising to save users money.

The magazine included sites like ConsumerSearch, Yelp and Kayak that help users find the best deals or read other people’s reviews of companies and products, as well as cut-price auction site Shop Goodwill and budget calculator Mint.

Another one, Supercook, offers recipes based on the ingredients you already have in your pantry, while CouchSurfing hooks travellers up with a (really) cheap place to stay.

Social networking sites, a few years ago the craze of the web, seem to have fallen from favour with no mention of previous inclusions LinkedIn, MySpace, Digg or Meebo.

However Twitter and Facebook both made this year’s list — the latter for the first time ever.

“If you’ve been avoiding Facebook because you’re concerned about privacy issues or worried you’ll lose your life to social networking, you’ve already spent too much time thinking about (it),” said TIME.

“Although it’s desperate to be more, Facebook is really just a phone book.”

source: news