Couchville: TV guide 2.0

Couchville is a new Web service from the folks at SnapStream Media that provides simple, no frills TV listings. Just give Couchville your ZIP code, and a few seconds later you've got the day's programming right in front of you.

What sets Couchville apart from its competitors is a really easy to use interface, which feels a lot like Google Maps. To go in any direction, just click on the guide and drag it. This feels totally natural when you want to see what's happening later in the day, but a little unwieldy for scrolling down the page. Call me old fashioned, but I like using my mouse's scroll wheel.

Couchville is separate from Beyond TV, SnapStream's DVR app. Eventually I'd like to see Beyond TV achieve the holy grail of these services: being able to record programs picked right from the the guide while away from home (for now see Slingbox). In the future SnapStream plans to let users share programming picks with others, and make recommendations based on taste.

In the meantime, it's a great online guide for TV. See also MeeVee, TitanTV, and Zap2it.

(Credit: CNET Networks)