It looks like Hulu users will now get to have a hand in the site’s development. Hulu Labs opened today, and this new portion of the site will both let people try out experimental projects and solicit their feedback.
There are four projects to start with. First, and perhaps most important, is Hulu Desktop. It’s being billed as “a lean-back viewing experience for your personal computer – optimized for use with WMC or Apple remotes.” Essentially, it moves Hulu that much closer to being a replacement for regular television.
Then there’s Hulu Recommendations, which works about as the name would lead you to expect. The trick is that if it works well enough, turning people on to one television show and movie after another, this feature will lead to people using Hulu a lot more.
Next up is Hulu Video Panel Designer, which might have the same potential. “Customize and program easy-to-use widgets to embed on your site,” a description encourages. And thereby show people how cool Hulu is, too, of course.
Finally, Hulu’s has an experiment called Time-Based Browsing. It’s apparently “[a]nother way to find something to watch: Look for videos based on their original air dates.”
Nifty stuff, all in all. In fact, Omid Mikhchi tweeted in response, “WHY ARE YOU SO GOOD HULU WHY!” It sounds like a lot of other people will be entering Hulu Labs this afternoon, as well.
