Hulu introduced a couple of new site features today to make it easier for users to find the videos they are after. For the first one you can thank Hulu’s Beijing team according to a post on the Hulu Blog.
That feature is one that lets you search for an actor’s name and retrieve results that include video thumbnails showing images of that actor. For example, I could search for David Cross and get a whole bunch of Arrested Development clips that are thumbnailed with pictures of him.
I could also search for Michael Cera, and get possibly the same Arrested Development clips, but they would be thumbnailed with images of him instead of David Cross, or the images used in a search for “Arrested Development.”
You can see a little bit more about that feature in the following video:
The second new feature is one that lets you view video descriptions without having to click through to the main video page. You can simply mouseover any video thumbnail image and view the description.
These new features are minor, but significant. They make finding videos more convenient for users. It’s all about usability. As the online video industry gets more competitive, little things like this are what is likely to have some users give preference to one site over another, particularly in instances where the same content can be found on either.
