Dear TiVo Inc.,
Please create permalinks for episodes of television shows. For instance, when Boing Boing posts about a show, I want them to be able to embed a link that will add a show to my ToDo list using remote scheduling.
Do you see what I did there? I didn’t tell you to type b-o-i-n-g-b-o-i-n-g-.-n-e-t into your browser, then search for “douglas rushkoff coercion.” I just included a link and if you clicked on it you were taken to the exact morsel of information that I wanted to show you. Same concept, except for TV shows.
If you need help figuring out why this is a good thing, take a look at how many people link to Apple’s iTunes Music Store and how much money they make off of it. (hint: they’re making enough on those links that they’re paying people to link to the iTMS)
Love,
George
Update: Looks like they have permalinks now, was that a quick turnaround or has this been there and I didn’t see it? There’s a “Link to This!” button at the bottom of the show page in remote scheduling that opens up a page like this:
Update 2: If you look in the comments of this entry, Bob Pony from TiVo says that they had been planning this feature and just happened to launch it the same day as my post, which was a pretty cool coincidence. Also it looks like if I link to a show on my affiliate, like I did on that image above, it’s smart enough to find the show in your area when you click the link.
15 responses to “Dear TiVo…”
Cool idea. Nice to see it got implemented so quickly too.
On the not-so-nice side, it would be cool to have a general way of referencing TV programs by permalinks, that would be Tivo-independent…
Like RSS and subscriptions, you don’t want to put one link per “standard” (Tivo, MS MCE,…) when you link to a TV program.
We have imdb for movies, amazon for books…
A more semantic web is approaching (slowly) and the ones holding the data are trying to take a piece of it 😉
Yes, you can now share links for your favorite shows, and let your friends schedule a recording on their TiVo DVR with a simple click of the mouse. Links can be shared via email, or you can build a link for a favorite show, episode, or a specific search right into your website.
This feature has been on the drawing boards for some time. It’s a happy coincidence that you made the suggestion on the same day we unveiled the feature.
How’d you know? 😉
Cheers,
Bob Pony
TiVo Product Marketing
Hmmm….I have to look at this closer this weekend, but I’m tempted to test this on my TV site (allyourtv.com). It seems like a nice feature, but I have to answer two questions: 1) How difficult is it going to be to implement site-wide and, 2)Will the buttons annoy non-Tivo readers?
I had the same idea a while back… great to see it’s done!
Its nice to see this feature, but it would be better if TiVo “branded” the link with a logo’d (graphic) html button, providing an html snippet neophyt web posters could use to easily add the button to their web page/blog. This way, the linked TiVo URL is easily recognizable (in its graphic form), no matter what web site you see it on. No doubt, many folks will create their own graphic, but like I said, it would be nice to see the same “Schedule in TiVo” (or whatever) button everywhere.
TiVo Permalinks
Wow, cool! Sadly, I’ve abandoned my TiVo for the craptacular Pioneer Explorer 8000HD. (HD capability trumps usability.)…
Permalinks for Tivo shows
Via 90% Crud: Dear TiVo… a discussion about permalinks for shows in Tivo (actually, permalinks to the listing at tivo.com). Seems like Tivo has this or added it very quickly on reading of this discussion. Next: RSS feeds for Tivo recordings….
TiVo Permalinks
The iTunes music store has been encouraging websites to post links to music at their store. This has been so successful that they have actually paid some sites to post links. So what does this have to do with TiVo?…
TiVo is listening
PVRBlog drew my attention to a letter to TiVo from George Hotelling asking that they enable web links ala ITMS so you could remotely program your device…
A day later… TiVo has added this as a feature! Congratulations TiVo! Apparently they were …
This is very cool, but I wish it would let you see a bit of information about it (like playing time and show name) if you don’t have Tivo. That way you could get a little taste of the fun 😉
Tivo Permalinks
90% Crud had an interesting idea to make web scheduling a Tivo just a bit easier: Permalinks to television shows. The idea is that with a single click on someone’s website, you could program your tivo to record that show….
Will the Networks Promote TiVo “Permalinks”?
Ernie the Attorney notes that TiVo has adopted a new capability that they should have adopted long ago (TIVO now has permalinks):So now TIVO lets bloggers create links to so that people who use the web programming feature can quickly…
It’s great to see that TiVo is actually listening to its’ customers!
Alex
http://www.tivoblog.com
i’m puzzled by this post: “a general way of referencing TV programs by permalinks, that would be Tivo-independent…
Like RSS and subscriptions, you don’t want to put one link per “standard” (Tivo, MS MCE,…) when you link to a TV program.
We have imdb for movies, amazon for books…
A more semantic web is approaching (slowly) and the ones holding the data are trying to take a piece of it ;-)”
in what way are IMdb and Amazon more “general” ways of referencing products than TIVO is? i understand that Amazon has become a defacto standard for referencing books, but after all, Amazon isn’t a public service, it is just another company, like Tivo. who’s to say that Tivo’s way of referencing TV programming won’t soon become the defacto standard?
chris sizemore posts “in what way are IMdb and Amazon more ‘general’ ways of referencing products than TIVO is?” Since IMdb is owned by Amazon (note the links in the top right-hand corner of movie/actor pages), perhaps TiVo could just have Amazone decide the standard reference. It could work like this… you click the “Record this Show on TiVo!” button and then your browser opens a pop-up window with the IMdb info that now includes a link in the top right-hand corner to record a show with TiVo AND/OR buy the DVD in various languages. They could even have a little record matrix for TiVo vs. Software DVR’s vs. whatever, if they so chose. Wait, am I actually recommending pop-up windows. Nevermind.