Dear TiVo... (Updated)

George posts a great idea for TiVo: incorporate HTML on websites with the remote scheduling features at TiVo.com, so that I could say "my favorite shows right now are these five" and readers would have an easy way to send those to their TiVo as things to be taped or season passed.

This would be a real boon to TV review sites, Network TV sites, and anyone that's a fan of television. TiVo, you just launched a referral program that is working great (he says while he awaits the arrival of the special TiVo iPod). Let your fans help become your biggest spokespeople and spread their influence to other TiVo owners. If every TV review/fan site had links to "send a show to your TiVo" how many more TiVos do you think you could sell?

I bet it could be a lot.

update: Woot! This has been added to TiVo's service and site! Check out George's originial post to see the news straight from someone at TiVo.

Comments

[MegaZone]

I suggested that to them when TCO first launched. I think it is an oversight not to have a way to provide a link to a show that others can use. I know I'd do it with my SP list. :-)

[Andrew]

I think Tivo Central just implemented this recently... I was doing a search yesterday and they added two buttons to search results and detail pages: "Tell a friend" and "Link to this!".

Testing here:

https://www3.tivo.com:443/tivo-com/tco/oneclick.do?v=T1TMG%2Fz1tEh%2FgZspAZR1v6mgyPt7GrcyMSgfEdu6phTbg93ASXwEwRHdjaW8m2ODkhudnUQwSggI%0Au122s3wG1w%3D%3D

[Geof F. Morris]

I agree ... I've got to think that people would share dynamically-generated data like their Season Pass list. People have a need to share this information, and if you can make it happen technologically, you're going to see people evangelize the service all the time.

[Vince Averello]

I sent this idea to Zap2it.Com back in August and received this response:

Hi Vince:

Thanks for the note. We indeed have had discussions about doing exactly
that. As a (multiple) TiVo owner myself, I realize TiVo's current
application isn't that easy and I think we could do a great job of it on
Zap2it.com. We have had discussions with TiVo and I do think there will be
an opportunity in the future to do something together.

[Jeff]

That would be quite cool. Kind of like a user/community generated Tivomatic (you know, "Press Thumbs Up To Record").

And then expanding beyond that, maybe have the ability to RSS your season pass OUT of the Tivo and on to your website (if you so choose).

[JohanS]

MegaZone: nice link to the OC, I see you also discovered the difference between a "program" link and an "episode link".

I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed by the season premier of the 2nd season of the OC, or maybe I just remembered the 1st season too fondly.

I would have liked to link my name... but the URL is toooo loooooong:

https://www3.tivo.com/tivo-com/tco/oneclick.do?v=T1TMG%2Fz1tEh%2FgZspAZR1v0k%2FcMtaWDzPAKK7XmsGFZfAq9QlUpxEFfJ827FW%2BNf1

[reemer]

I had the same idea back in June, glad to see it's implemented!

http://www.reemer.com/archives/2004/06/27/10.14.06/

[Matt Haughey]

Yeah, it seems the URLs are crazy long. Maybe someone at tivo could implement a TinyURL.com like service?

[Bob Pony]

Yes, I believe TinyURL's are on the short list of things we'd like to have.

Cheers,
Bob Pony
TiVo Product Marketing

[Brady]

I think this is something a lot of us have wanted for some time. While these permalinks are a good start, Tivo "playlist" sharing should really become much more seemless. Having to interact with the Tivo Central website directly should be bypassed in playlists sharing. Think web services.

Playlist sharing abilities will certainly lead to personal broadcast stations, something Mark Cuban recently discussed on his weblog.

http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/7673569691391003/

Just as we more commonly rely on weblogs and their RSS feeds to triage news and information on the net, it is perfectly reasonable to surmize that we would look to others to filter down television programming.