The folks over at Crackle sure have been busy lately, because when I randomly went to the site earlier today it looked far different than I remember a while ago. The re-design is much more functional and it seems to be better organized. The content has improved for the most part, and some of the custom shows are still hit or miss – they have a new show every day, and a series assigned to that day. Owen Benjamin Presents (Monday), Anytime with Bob Kushell (Tuesday), True Colors (Wednesday), The Jace Hall Show (Thursday), and Cell (Friday). The Movie and Television sections have some interesting choices, but it has a hard time keeping up with a service such as Hulu. The reason why Hulu is more relevant to the American public is because it has content that is current. Crackle has a very unique offering, to say the least. Some classics that would be fun to listen to while working one afternoon, or watch on a random night, some not so much – at least most of it is in good quality HD (even in full screen).
The only thing that annoys me about Crackle is the commercials. Before every video plays I have to watch at least a 15-30 second commercial. I was trying to watch a :20 video clip from the Jace Hall Show and it had a :30 commercial! The commercial shouldn’t be longer than the content. I also had some random problems with the video player, where it would stop playing if I switch to Full Screen, or it wouldn’t start a clip after a commercial. However, with promising (and edgy) new content coming down the pipeline and a great new interface, perhaps Crackle has finally found its place after all. It seems to have a relatively vibrant community. The Crackle team also has a blog.
My favorite part of the site is the Cinemactive game. It’s a free to sign up game that allows you to challenge your friends, or play alone to movie-clip based trivia. You have to pay decent money for a game like this on a console, and this works right in the browser. I imagine it would also work on the PS3’s browser. Give a shot – the clips are good quality and the trivia questions are entertaining.
