The site, Hulu.com, has officially opened to all visitors. They no longer even require registration to watch their content. The question is, how IS that content?

Still a combination of Fox and NBC shows, they offer a wide range of options. They've recently added little icons by each show to denote where "full episodes" are available. The alternative, such as in the case of Futurama right now, are just 1 or 2 minute clips. Although they offer over 60 of these, that hardly warrants much effort to watch. Probably one of the objectives of the site is to have recently aired TV shows up on the site. This is a good way to avoid piracy, and to bring in more viewers on next week's show. They've done this pretty well, as I can see New Amsterdam's most recent episode up there.

The greatest improvement of the site is the added selection of full length films. This is something the internet has been moving towards: ad supported movies. Right now there is a really great selection of somewhat dated films and newer releases. Its great to see The Big Lebowski free for the watching.

Site:hulu / More Info

...that will be the case before long. Viacom has apparently signed a deal to put all the back episodes, and future episodes as they're released, on the South Park website according to CNET news. These episodes will probably feature some sort of ads, but their instant access will be a major improvement over watching reruns on TV.

Right now the site only contains a couple of clips and some other non-video features. Hopefully all the content will be up some time in early 2008. Reportedly, Matt Stone and Trey Parker will be getting a full 50% of income from the site.

Site:South Park Studios / More Info

NBC and FOX have teamed up and decided to put nearly all of their new content online. This is really great news for people who are trying to find alternatives to cable TV. The only downside is that their site, hulu.com, is still in "beta." This means you must be an approved user, because the design is still in the early stages, and not ready for "the world."

This is where OPENhulu comes in. They've been approved as users and this allows them to, among other things, embed hulu videos (not unlike YouTube's embedding, etc). They've created the OPENhulu site which is nothing more than a mirror of the videos available on hulu.

The site design (which is apparently under renovation) is very straightforward. You will see a list of all the 100+ shows they have to offer. These range from the current (30 Rock) to the old-school (Season 1 of Doogie Howser, M.D.). Once you've picked the show, you pick an episode to watch, and it loads right in the page (streaming, of course). You can choose to watch full-screen (which currently means the movie reloads in a browser window containing a flexible-sized movie), embed the movie, or share it with a friend.

Altogether, this is a great site. Unfortunately, they must realize that the moment hulu opens their doors, this site will be obsolete. Use it now to get a jump on the content, and to bide the catch up on shows you've missed..

Site:OPENhulu / More Info

CBS's online streaming video website, which goes by the less-than-clever name of "innertube," is a great step toward bringing network television to the internet. The entire website loads as flash, that means if you don't have a plugin you're out of luck. Also, as far as I can tell, it makes it impossible to link to any content directly. All videos are played in either Real Media Player or Windows Media Player, which is nice for people who might not have one or the other.

Unfortunately, the biggest drawback of the site comes from the content itself. This is due directly to CBSs terrible programming, which is predominantly reality TV. Once I found something that seemed worthwhile (I thought I would give the show "New Adventures of Old Christine" a chance) there was only a single episode available for streaming. Some of the other shows had three or four available. The video played quite well though, never needing to be paused for additional buffering on my cable connection. At the commercial breaks in the show there was only a single 30-second commercial. The player allows for fast forwarding, or dragging the cursor within the segment of the show, so the commercials can easily be skipped, too. The full screen option is also really nice, and the resolution stays crisp enough to display well on a television. My biggest complaint there was that some sort of error message was apparently popping up underneath the full-screen player, but when I would try to check it, it would dissapear.

This service is designed really well, and as they put more content on it, it can easily be the sort of site worth checking regularly. Hopefully they'll avoid the rut which can come from making their streaming content nothing more than an advertisement for their tv network.

Site:CBS.com innertube / More Info

Although a relative new-comer to the internet (it only opened for operation in 2005), YouTube has become the essential stop for anyone who looks for entertainment online. Purchased by Google not long ago, there's been a forced legitimization of their content. Once the top videos were all pirated clips of TV show and movies, now things are moving toward genuinely user-created content. Unfortunately, because this site has become so massive (it has become a pop-culture movement, after all) it's nearly impossible to find anything unless you know exactly what you're looking for. The only alternative to just relying on external webpages linking into YouTube would be randomly watching videos, choosing from the automatically generated list at the end of every movie.

Another painful downside here is that, because anyone can upload anything, it has become a swarm of absurd America's Funniest Home Video-esque clips. Want to see the latest shot of a sneezing panda? Or a laughing baby? Yeah, you and millions of others. But if, perhaps, you're searching for more substantial fare, you're in for some trouble. They attempt to provide you with guide-posts to getting more of what you want, including the tabs for Videos, Categories, Channels, and Community. These ambiguous terms are narrowed down further into their own categories including the Entertainment Category, the Comedian Channel, and any number of user-created "Groups" on the Community tab. Typically any choice on your part leads to a list of options that seem to go on, sprawling on infinite pages, endlessly. The overwhelming layout leads you to pick through the first page, which probably contains about a dozen items, then back out of the category.

Finally, there is the series of "tops" and "mosts" found on the left side-bar. Here is the most interesting material for me, if only as an indirect way of learning something about people en masse. You're given options including "Top Rated," "Most Viewed," "Most Discussed," etc. Also you can alter your search by time, looking at today, this week, this month, or all time. What does it tell you about today's culture that Evolution of Dance has staked out a claim as the "best" video of all time? Is there a 6 minute Citizen Kane for our generation on here? Who could tell.

Site:YouTube / More Info