Clicker launches Internet video guide based on HTML5 at Google I/O

Clicker, a television guide for the Web, announced today at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco the launch of Clicker.tv, a Web-based application that gives users a way to more easily find and watch the videos they are looking for on the Internet.

Much like Hulu, Clicker.tv spotlights popular episodes of television shows on its simple home page. It also provides advanced search functionality, allowing viewers to find search by media type (TV, general web, music, movies, etc.) All of this can be controlled with keystrokes, eliminating the need for a mouse and making the interface seem more like a remote control.

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But Clicker also lets users create playlists of media to view or listen to later, similar to DVR systems like TiVo. These users can set up notifications letting them know when new content they have bookmarked or may be interested in has been indexed on the site.

The company says that Google contacted it about presenting at the I/O conference when it caught wind of how it was using HTML5, a new version of the standard language for Web pages which Google is supporting. HTML5-based Web apps promise to be more compatible with smartphones, tablets, and other alternative computing platforms than technologies designed for conventional PCs, like Adobe’s Flash.

Clicker aggregates more than 650,000 television episodes, 30,000 movies and 80,000 music videos. All of this video content is pulled from popular online sites like Netflix, Amazon and network television websites. The service notched 1 million users in April. Clicker founder Jim Lanzone, formerly the CEO of Ask.com, says the company expects continued growth.

The Los Angeles-based startup recently raised $11 million in a second round of funding led by Jafco Ventures. Earlier investors Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures also joined the round.