With thousands of videos being uploaded to the web every minute, there is no doubt that we need a way to sort through them to find videos that appeal to our tastes. That’s where Shufflr.tv comes in. Shufflr is one of the 10 hottest new apps at the SF AppShow. This free app by Althea Systems is available for iPhone, iPad, and browsers.
Shufflr sifts through millions of online videos to serve up videos that it feels will appeal to you. This is done through two views: The Daily Fix gives you trending daily topics while the Flip Side lets you choose from a variety of channels like Celeb Channels and Entertain me. You can also choose genres like business, comedy news, sports and music. If you already know what you like there are also Video Channels like BBC, Biography, Lonely Planet, Scobleizer and The Onion.
One unique feature is that social media is integrated so you can see what your friends are watching and Shufflr uses your profiles and online information to help choose the videos it presents.
The interface is good on both the iPad and the iPhone. I expected the iPhone screen to be bit crowded, so I was surprised to find the iPhone interface as useable as the iPad interface.
On the iPad, in the Daily Fix view you see a variety of videos that you can scroll through across both the top and the bottom of the screen. The top shows the Trending Topics and at the bottom you can choose between Related Videos and Videos People Also Watched. If you choose to watch a video, it appears in the middle of the screen and can be made to run full screen. It is an efficient use of screen real estate.
In only an hour’s use, I was able to find quite a few videos that I had not seen anywhere else and that really did fit my tastes. This may be just the app for anyone who likes to watch videos, but doesn’t want to spend hours searching for them.