Clicker's Jim Lanzone Talks About TV on the Web (And Shows Off L.A. Digs)

During my recent sojourn in Los Angeles, BoomTown dropped in on the Melrose Avenue HQ of Clicker, the Web site trying to make search sense of premium video on the Web.

I had a chat with Jim Lanzone, former CEO of Ask, the fourth-place search service owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI), about whether such a service could survive with giants like Google (GOOG) around.

Lanzone is certainly trying to differentiate Clicker, which aims to steer clear of both copyright issues and huge bandwidth costs by simply being a helpful friend to consumers in search of good video from television, movies and the Web itself.

As Katherine Boehret’s review of the Clicker service in November described it:

[Clicker is a] free Web site that aims to be the TV Guide for all full episodes available to watch on the Web. It searches over 1,200 sources, so it can index some 400,000 episodes from 7,000 shows. Results include television programs as well as “Web originals,” or shows that are native to the Internet and are of broadcast quality. Clicker either plays the video on its site or links you to where this content is shown on another hosting site–like NBC or Hulu. If a show isn’t available online, Clicker tells you so you don’t have to keep hunting all over for it.

To try to improve its Web search efforts, Clicker raised another $11 million in venture funding in February in a round led by Jafco Ventures, with participation from earlier investors Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures. The funding follows an $8 million round announced last fall.

Here’s the video of my interview with Lanzone, who also gave me a short tour of Clicker’s HQ:

Anonymous

I’ve used this service numerous times and can safely say that it hasn’t yet let me down. I think the interface lends itself well to helping me find my shows, specifically those in their “web originals” categories. It looks great on my desktop, and although I had some issues originally when trying it on my iphone, I managed to find some great cooking videos while working in my kitchen. If I can see 50 different ways to cook asparagus on my iphone, while I’m actually cooking asparagus in my kitchen, consider me sold. I’m excited to see if they implement some kind of advanced social experience within the site as well, because I’d love to be able to connect further with my group of friends, not just over facebook posts.
Anonymous

:( something needs to be done about the disqus sign in process…
Anonymous

I think Clicker is wonderful and useful website. In addition, I believe it resides in a beautiful building and should never change its location.
Anonymous

Their office looked very fun. Wish there were more shots of it and the workers.
willr11

Clicker is good stuff. I've been watching most of my tv through it the past couple months.
carlos_b

Cool to see parts of their office, though the video yanked around so much it was hard to tell what I was looking at! Been using Clicker for a month or so now. Digging it so far. I'm finding they have way more content than you can find on Hulu. Though I want to be able to rate shows, comment, etc.
MarkRStephens

I've used Clicker on numerous occasions and have found it to be very useful. I'm primarily used it on my desktop, but I've recently attempted it on my iPhone. While it took a bit longer, the experience was relatively the same. If I can search and find 50 asparagus recipes while I'm in my kitchen cooking asparagus, consider me sold. I'm very interested in seeing what kind of social features they will have in the future because I am tired of just posting things to Facebook. Thanks for the great video Kara.
rileyelton

Great interview. I use Clicker all the time.
aeroplaneyes

i love clicker! they make it so easy to find everything i want to watch (& even stuff i didn't know i wanted to watch!)
oets

Oh snap. A peak behind the curtain of one of my favorite websites
SteveMartinRox

I like seeing the offices of my favorite websites!
PatSmoeshmuzzi

Just visited- Great, all laid out easily. I'm sick of digging through the crap of Google results, especially Google video (and thus now YouTube) which is a clustered brainless mess of amateur nonsense, sometimes completely irrelevant, but often a waste of time. Kudos.
alexandermb

Wow, “helpful friend” is right. I'm sold, Clicker.
Lance_Uppercut

clicker is a very cool service, been using it for a while now

Clicker's Jim Lanzone Talks About TV on the Web (And Shows Off L.A. Digs)

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