Webware

Social media is coming to Warner Bros. Television Group's online properties, thanks to a smallish AOL property called Socialthing.

A feed of members' activity across Warner Bros. entertainment sites--TheWB.com, KidsWB.com, DC Hero Zone, MomLogic, Essence, and TheCW.com--will be displayed on their Socialthing profiles. So, if you watch a "Gossip Girl" video on TheCW.com or play a game on DC Hero Zone, it'll show up in your feed, and you can keep tabs on what your friends are doing as well (and share bits of content with them). There will also be fictional Socialthing profiles for characters like the "Gossip Girl" cast as part of a broader promotional effort.

As some others have pointed out, it's nice to see AOL finally showing some synergy with parent company Time Warner. You know, before it gets spun off and all.

AOL purchased Socialthing, a would-be competitor to FriendFeed, last summer and integrated it into the "People Networks" division anchored by the company's earlier acquisition of Bebo. Last month, AOL relaunched Socialthing as "a revolutionary new platform that brings social-networking services to Web sites and enables publishers to attract new users and keep them engaged wherever they are on the Web" and announced that it would be working the service into its MediaGlow content network.

From what it sounds like, it won't be all that different to what Viacom has been doing with its own "social platform" technology, Flux. Right now, members can log in with AOL and AIM accounts, but it'll soon be expanded to include Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo, and OpenID credentials with the help of the various data portability tools out there.

Disclosure: The CW television network is a joint venture between Warner Bros. and CBS. CNET News is published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.

Media-center start-up Boxee, which aggregates Web video for television set-top boxes, has launched a new version that restores access to video hub Hulu. The NBC Universal-News Corp. joint venture had pulled its content from Boxee after content partners took issue with it.

But it's not really the same: Boxee has brought back Hulu by extending its support for RSS feeds, and is pulling the video content in that way.

"Like IE, Firefox, or Google Reader, the RSS reader supports Google Video, Yahoo, YouTube and feeds from many other websites," a post on the Boxee blog by CEO Avner Ronen read. "While it's not as attractive or robust as our previous Hulu application, it will additionally support Hulu's public RSS feeds."

Industry talks continue, the post continued. "While we don't come from an entertainment or cable background, we are learning quickly. It is a complex business. Our meetings with Hulu and their content providers reinforced that point," Ronen wrote. "They are trying to adjust to a new reality, but they need time."

Rotten Tomatoes, the popular online destination for movie buffs, will premiere in all its television glory (TomatoMeter and all) Thursday night at 10:30 p.m. EST on Current TV. The 30-minute show, which is hosted by Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox, will run weekly in that time slot where the hosts will discuss and review three movies.

Although the movie review space is crowded, Erlich and Fox believe their show is different from the competition. Both hosts told me in an interview on my Digital Home Podcast that while the basic premise--reviewing movies--isn't unique, bringing the audience in on the reviews will help distinguish their show.

"Users will be able to upload a three-word review of a movie and we'll create a Webcam ensemble with all those together where the community will review the film," Erlich said. "Users can even send in haiku reviews of the movies and the best will be picked and played on the show."

Once the Rotten Tomatoes team receives those contributions, producers will post assignments for the next week's show, asking viewers to go see a movie and record a Webcam review or haiku. Each week, the assignment will change, but users will always need a Webcam to participate.

Erlich said the "Rotten Tomatoes Show" will be "fast-paced." It will be, he said, a "comedic journey through the week in cinema."

After airing on Thursday nights, "The Rotten Tomatoes Show" will be made available on Current's show page, as well as on the Rotten Tomatoes home page, subsequent to the airing. Though there's currently no finalized schedule, the show will be made available on iTunes in the near future.

Wow. With all the drama and in-fighting among cable companies, TV content creators, and Web video companies this week, you'd think the whole industry was one big junior-high cafeteria. Oh, wait, it kind of is.

First, Hulu--a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp.--pulled its content from TV.com (which is owned by CBS, publisher of CNET News). Then it did the same with Boxee, a company that makes software designed for watching online video on TVs via set-top boxes. The reason for these measures appears to be either mounting pressure from the TV content owners that have licensed their video to Hulu, or mounting pressure from the cable companies, or both, or something like that.

Now, we've got a report in The Wall Street Journal indicating that cable giants Time Warner Cable and Comcast are in talks with some of the companies that operate pay-cable channels, for a plan to make some of the networks' content available online to subscribers. It'd probably be on a streaming, ad-supported basis, and probably available for free to existing subscribers.

I've been watching all this with quite a bit of curiosity and amusement. You see, I canceled my cable subscription and ditched my TV a few months ago, and have since been relying on a combination of Netflix (which may offer a streaming-only option as early as next year), iTunes, Hulu, and randomly dropping in on friends' apartments if I really, really want to watch something live. If I show up with a pizza and a nice friendly smile, most of them are OK with it.

In this Digital Age, cable subscriptions just seem a bit convoluted to me; no offense to the people who run the Game Show Channel or Boomerang, but those aren't my cup of tea and I'd prefer to not have to pay for them.

If this shadowy, in-the-works cable deal involves any kind of Web-only cable subscription where, say, you can pay by the stream or by the channel, I'd be all for it. And if the content providers finally work things out with the set-top box makers and Web video hubs, it could be terrific for me and other people who've gotten totally fed up with Stone Age TV offerings. For now, however, it's just a dramatic mess and recent signs are indicating that it's taking steps backward as opposed to forward.

Consequently, I'm riding out the storm for now. I'm holding off on purchasing any kind of set-top box--or a television, for that matter--until the future-of-television compass stops wildly spinning. In a few years, I'm sure, the solution to it all will seem like it should've been obvious the whole time.

Isn't that always how these things are?

Spoiler alert: If you really hate reading anything about episodes of Lost that you haven't seen yet--and you haven't seen the episode that first aired Wednesday--you might not want to read ahead.

I know we have more pressing things to talk about these days--the economy, climate change, the new president--but I'm going to barge in this morning with a warning about something a bit more niche.

When you're posting to Twitter about something you're watching on TV, make sure nobody thinks it's really happening!

Background: I've been watching this season of Lost at a local bar that shows it on a couple of massive screens every week. The place is packed full of total fanatics: it's like football, except with flaming arrows in lieu of pigskin. Highly recommended.

So in Wednesday night's episode, something happens. I'm going to be very vague to avoid spoiling it, but basically, there's one point in which a character is holding a gun, and the important part is that we have never learned what said character's name is. There's an argument, and another character, whose name we do know, addresses the anonymous gun-wielder by name. It's a name that would shock even mildly avid Lost-watchers. Most of those in the bar expressed their surprise by gasping, shrieking, or otherwise effusing.

A commercial break followed, and--of course--I posted a Twitter message: "'Put the gun down, [redacted].' OMG WHOA. Whole bar gasped."

Well, a few minutes later I received a direct message from someone I know on Twitter--I'll keep this person anonymous. The message read, "someone pulled out a gun???" Apparently, my Twitter contact hadn't seen the earlier messages that made it clear I was watching Lost and seemed to think I was at a bar where someone had pulled out a gun. Oops.

Luckily, no panic ensued. It was, after all, only a single Twitter post. A few direct messages and a public clarification later, I'd explained the reality of the situation, and my Twitter contact responded with, "There must be a term for this: 'taken out of twontext?'" I'm generally not a fan of corny Twitter puns, but he hit the nail on the head.

I guess putting things into "twontext" is why we have Twitter hash tags, the searchable keywords that many people tack onto the end of Twitter messages, often to tie them to discussion surrounding an event--say, "#davos" for the World Economic Forum or "#inaug09" for this month's presidential inauguration. I typically don't use them unless I'm at a conference where we've been asked to tag for aggregation purposes, but Wednesday night hinted to me that considering how much banter and noise fills up a Twitter feed, it's really easy to get the wrong idea about something.

I mean, goodness knows what might happen on Lost next week.

Hulu has quickly become one of the leaders in online video. Providing professional content from major networks and movie studios, the site has welcomed millions across the U.S. who want to watch streams of their favorite shows or movies online.

I'm certainly one of them. But after catching up on Battlestar Galactica and watching the same five episodes of The Office over and over again to memorize Dwight Schrute's lines, I'm left wanting more.

That's why I've compiled this list of five television shows that I'd like to see added to Hulu.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Curb Your Enthusiasm creator and star, Larry David, co-created Seinfeld with Jerry Seinfeld. And although this show doesn't quite live up to the popularity Jerry's show did, it's easily one of the funniest shows on television and one that I would watch every day if it was available on Hulu.

Curb takes you through the trials and tribulations of being Larry David. He's a rude, abrasive person who has little respect for anyone or anything. But it doesn't matter--his total disregard for people's feelings and his penchant for arguments makes the show a winner. Adding it to Hulu makes perfect sense. It's an HBO show--a network that Hulu currently doesn't partner with (but should)--and its cult following could help the site capture an even larger audience. I don't see any downside.

Seinfeld

What can be said about Seinfeld that hasn't already been discussed by its millions of fans and countless pundits? Seinfeld is, in my opinion, the funniest sitcom ever created and its cast of characters was second to none.

A show about nothing, it took some time for Seinfeld to captivate audiences. But when it did, they were taken by off-the-wall stunts, strange characters (George Costanza was based on Larry David), and hilarious story lines. Perhaps that's why I simply don't understand why NBC, one of the main companies backing Hulu, doesn't feature one of its most popular sitcoms of all time on its own online video service. Maybe it's contractual or maybe NBC suits don't want to offer it for free if they think they can incur more revenue on DVD sales, but bringing Seinfeld to Hulu would, in my mind, make the video site a more compelling service.

The Sopranos

Another huge HBO hit, The Sopranos is one of my favorite series and probably the show I'd most like to see on Hulu.

The Sopranos follows the life of mobster, Tony Soprano, but it doesn't inundate the viewer with scenes of mob violence, though there is quite a bit of that. Instead, The Sopranos uses Tony's family and psychology as the backbone of the story and employs the Mafia angle to provide color and drama as needed. Suffice it to say that The Sopranos is more about sociology and human interaction than the Mob. But one aspect of the show that probably keeps Hulu away is the profanity and sexual content--it's everywhere. Look for age verification if it ever gets to Hulu.

Sportscenter

Putting Sportscenter on Hulu seems like the logical next step for the video streaming service. Except, of course, that Sportscenter is broadcast on ESPN, which is owned by ABC--a company that has yet to partner with Hulu. But that shouldn't stop us from wanting the premier sports news show on television to make its way to Hulu.

Sportscenter is the single source for daily sports highlights and with so many rebroadcasts each day, it's conceivable that you'll see the same show three or four times in just a few hours and never tire of it. That's the kind of viewer Hulu needs and I don't know of any other show besides Sportscenter that could provide it.

The Wonder Years

Am I alone in thinking that The Wonder Years was one of the best television shows of the past 15 years? I thought it was poignant, funny, and most importantly, real. Yet I can't find it anywhere on DVD and as far as I know, it might never be released due to contract disputes. But that shouldn't stop it from coming to Hulu.

The Wonders Years is easily one of my favorite shows of all time. Following the formative years of Kevin Arnold, the show's viewers were able to relive teenage years that were rife with uncertainty, misunderstanding, puppy love, and a strong desire for whatever the future might hold. Its writing was superb, its acting even better. The Wonder Years was, to both children and adults alike, a tale of life. I'd like nothing more than to be able to immerse myself in that world just one more time on Hulu. And I'm willing to bet its cult following is right there with me.

After broadcasting live Twitters during the U.S. presidential debate, Current TV had to go one notch higher for election night.

The cable channel, co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, has partnered with both Twitter and social news site Digg for the evening of November 4, during which it will feature a "multimedia dashboard" with live messages from Twitter, headlines from Digg, and video from both Current and "video status update" start-up 12seconds.tv. In keeping with the network's young target audience, electronica act Diplo will be performing DJ sets throughout the night, too.

The funny irony is that Digg reportedly once walked away from a $100 million acquisition offer from Current.

"The new pace of democracy is real-time," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in a joint release. "Current is helping Twitter amplify the opinions, news, and trends that matter right now. Together, we're influencing more than media--we're evolving conversation."

Election night on Current will also feature (naturally) commentary, projected results, and a state-by-state map. So it won't be all fun and games and Kevin Rose, y'know.

Google made two announcements Thursday that further advance the company's goal of becoming a power player in television advertising in addition to the Web.

First, the company announced that Harris, which manufactures communications equipment for business and government clients, will be integrating Google's advertising platform into the products it sells to media and communication companies. This means that Harris clients can use Google's service to manage ad inventory, which Mark Piesenan, director of strategic partnerships for Google TV ads, said will "offer media companies the opportunity to leverage (Google's) automated online marketplace, providing a new and efficient sales option for their ad inventory."

Additionally, Google has partnered with CoreMedia Systems, which makes an advertising analytics product called CoreDirect. The CoreDirect software will now start indexing statistics from Google TV ad campaigns.

These partnerships are on the behind-the-scenes side of things, but Google has been making some network partnerships as well: last month, Google announced it will be selling some TV ad time for NBC Universal, and will also be selling inventory for Dish Network and Bloomberg.

PBS and YouTube are encouraging U.S. voters to take something more than a sense of civic duty with them when they head to the polls on Nov. 4: they want them to take video cameras, too.

The Google-owned video site has partnered with PBS for "Video Your Vote," a project that encourages voters to videotape their polling experience and upload it to the Web. Select videos will be shown on Jim Lehrer's The NewsHour on PBS.

"Voters have documented each step of the 2008 election on YouTube and this phenomenon will culminate on November 4 as people head to the polls to determine the forty-fourth President of the United States," Steve Grove, YouTube's head of news and politics, said in a release Wednesday.

"This partnership with PBS, an organization known for offering rich perspectives, will help voters examine all aspects of voting from the registration processes, to reforms, to technology and election administration, to the actual casting of ballots." Grove elaborated in a video interview with blog Beet.tv.

Gadget company Pure Digital Technologies has agreed to give away 1,000 of its Flip Video cameras to participants who agree to make nine short videos for Video Your Vote: three before voting, three at the polls, and three afterward. A few start-ups, like user-contributed news site GroundReport, have jumped on board as well and are also offering free Flip cameras to readers who participate.

YouTube has a separate campaign, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, called the "Democracy Challenge." That's geared more toward aspiring filmmakers rather than voters armed with handheld cameras.

The video-sharing site already has a track record for political influence. In the 2006 mid-term elections, a widely circulated video of then-Senator George Allen using a bizarre racial epithet at a campaign rally made the rounds on YouTube, and according to some critics, it cost him the election.

But be careful: Some states have laws governing cameras at the polls. We don't think "Google said it was O.K." will be adequate defense.