April 20, 2008

TiVo New Website Design Fair, My TV Facebook App Lacking

Most of what you read here at TVSnob is focused on new HDTV-related products, services, and the news you can use, but TiVo has forced us out of our comfort zone with both a new website design and Facebook application in the same week.
TiVo, known for a nicely designed product, but ugly-as-all-hell website decided to step up giving their website an impressive makeover last week, dramatically improving not only its looks, but its usability, improved product descriptions and even some video tutorials. Interestingly, TiVo looks to have forgot to update its "Find TV Shows" page, which is still ugly-as-all-hell. Maybe this page will require some time-consuming database updates or something. Who knows, but I'm sure the company has been made aware of it by now, so doubt it's an engineering problem.
Now that TiVo isn't so ugly, they've decided to venture into the world of social networks, debuting the My TV Facebook app which allows TiVo users to converse, share what they're currently watching and making it a little funner to find new stuff to look at. No actually TiVo box integration though-in fact you don't even need to own a TiVo to use it. Looks like the company needs a little work on the distribution end of things though, with only a few postings on the app's page so far, mainly about how it's slow, boring, lacking conversation, and even TV show titles.