The idiot box is an amazing source of entertainment. Thanks to so many TV stations on air, there is no dearth of content – quality ones or otherwise. The number of shows being broadcast across the channels is growing exponentially and a lot of shows get cancelled or added mid season too. This makes TV viewing a chaotic experience.
To discover great shows to watch and to engage with fellow fans while the show is being broadcast is something a lot us are looking forward to do. SocialGuide is here to fill that void with style.
Overview
SocialGuide is a real time social powered TV guide that helps you instantly see trending shows and their localized channel hashtags on your TV. Discover what fellow fans, your friends and stars are saying while you watch. Imagine how fun it could be?
Overview
SocialGuide is free for everyone and you can sign up real quick with your existing Twitter or Facebook accounts. You will have to submit some more information after linking your social media account. First among them is the ZIP code, which will help customize the app with your local stations. Also selecting a local TV provider helps improve things.
User Interface
SocialGuide has one of the most clutter free user interfaces I have seen so far. Even on the homepage, there is no irrelevant copy, menus or other design elements. Before signing in, you can see a lot of action happening in the homepage itself, but everything is focused and relevent. There are two major sections in the homepage – Most Social Now and What’s on.
Realtime Rankings
The Most Social Now section is where you’ll find shows that are raking high in real time social mentions. Listings here are ranked based on the number of social media mentions in Twitter and Facebook, and are constantly changing. Every two minutes the rankings are refreshed and there is a countdown timer indicting the number of seconds left till refresh.
Realtime Rankings
Programs that are now on air and programs that have newly made it to the list are marked appropriately. Against each program, the tweets mentioning it are displayed and they keep ticking away. While this feature makes the rankings very transparent, the tweets just stay for a few seconds and it’s hard to read them in full. Some sort of pause and play mechanism or an option to view previous and next tweets would make a nice addition.
Realtime rankings are available for multiple categories and by default, a combined ranking inclusive of all the categories are displayed. To access the individual category rankings, head over to their respective tabs. Series, reality, Movies, Sports and News are some of the categories that are available.
In addition to the category rankings, you can check out the rankings based on the time too. Rankings for shows that are broadcast in a window of two hours can be checked out. It’s also interesting to see the realtime count of the number of people commenting at any given time.
TV Guide
The What’s on section of the web app acts as an online TV guide. This shows all programs that are being broadcast across all major networks. Shows coming up in the next hour can be accessed from here as well. Here too, the schedule is accessed based on the category of the program, just like in the case of the realtime rankings.
What's On
In the case of both realtime rankings and the TV guide, you can jump straight into the dedicated page of a show if you know the hashtag of the show. Hit the Go to Channel icon on the top right corner of the page and enter the show’s name to jump the queue.
Checking in and Comments
Checking In
From either the TV Guide or from the realtime rankings page, you can head over to the show’s page by simply clicking on it. If you are watching the show right now, you can check in by tweeting about from the page. As soon as you land on the show’s page, SocialGuide will prepopulate the tweet window with a link to the show and its hashtag. Just add a few words of your own if need be and make your vote count.
Comments
A gist of the show’s current episode storyline is displayed alongside with social media icons to announce the show that you are watching. All previous comments are listed just below the compose window. if you aren’t inclined to sift through all the comments, use the friends, cast and network filters to view comments from people who really matter.
Social Fans
The web app also has a leaderbaord of sorts. The Most social fans box is the place from where you can find the most active TV lovers and you can start following them at SocialGuide too. If you wan to connect with more people, try the All fans box which shows social fans who are active right now box at the bottom of the page, or the suggested users at the top.
Final Thoughts
SocialGuide is a real fun app to use. If you have friends who love watching TV shows or looking forward to make some like minded ones, SocialGuide is the right app for you. The developers prominently proclaim on their homepage that native mobile apps for iOS and Android devices are on their way. I expect the service to become whole lot more engaging once the apps show up.
Share Your Thoughts!
How useful will SocialGuide will be for a couch potato? Is there a better app to enhance TV viewing experience?