Hulu gets social
Like Netflix before them, online television network Hulu has a new social networking feature that lets friends share their favorite videos.Named Hulu Friends, this new social networking tool sits next to the video content, so that friends can recommend shows to each other. Hulu is using this new service in hopes to expand its network virally.
“Hulu's main focus started with video viewing in the first year, and in our second year, Hulu plans to build more community as part of the overall user experience,” said Christina Lee, a spokesperson for Hulu, via e-mail. “We're believers that conversation is an important part of that media experience and adding social networking features into Hulu will increase engagement of our users.”
Similar to Twitter or Facebook, users can invite friends through a Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo Mail accounts, and they can invite friends from a MySpace or Facebook page. Users also can share videos and write comments on other user accounts.
The social networking feature works like the Facebook news feed. Hulu Friends can look at a news feed to see who is watching what and who is friends with whom and share their own actions.
