Clicker was an Internet video directory and

search Searching may refer to: Music * "Searchin', Searchin", a 1957 song originally performed by The Coasters * Searching (China Black song), "Searching" (China Black song), a 1991 song by China Black * Searchin' (CeCe Peniston song), "Searchin" (C ...

company based in Los Angeles, California. Their

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

aimed to be the

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

for all full episodes of programs available to watch on the

Web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

.Wall Street Journal: ''A Clicker to Watch TV Online''
/ref> It is owned by

CBS Interactive Paramount Streaming (formerly CBS Digital Media, CBS Interactive, and ViacomCBS Streaming) is a division of Paramount Global that oversees the company's video streaming technology and direct-to-consumer services; including Pluto TV and Paramo ...

. Clicker indexed only legal video that is streamable online. It did not

host A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County * Host Island, in the Wilhelm Archipelago, Antarctica People * ...

any content, instead focusing on helping users discover and navigate to professional content hosted by rights-holders. While much of the streaming video content Clicker indexes was available for free, Clicker also pointed to paid services like Amazon Video-on-Demand,

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

and

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

Watch Instantly. Clicker also began indexing Comcast Xfinity, Comcast's online library of TV shows and movies, in August 2010.Clicker: "Roll Out The Clicker Red Carpet For…Comcast Subscribers!"
/ref> In addition to search and directory services, Clicker offered DVR-like features that enabled users to subscribe to shows and track when programs became available online.USA Today: ''Clicker Aims to be TV Guide for Internet Shows''
/ref> Additionally, Clicker offered many

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives fro ...

features for sharing programming information on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

Clicker's Facebook Homepage
/ref> pages and

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

.Clicker's Twitter Page
/ref> In July 2010, Clicker launched Clicker Social,
/ref> which brought social discovery to the online television guide and let users share what they were watching, follow their friends, recommend shows and movies, and earn awards from content partners like

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

, Crackle,

Revision3 Revision3 was a San Francisco, California, San Francisco–based Multi-channel network, multi-channel television network that created, produced and distributed streaming television shows on niche topics. Founded in 2005, it operated as a subsidia ...

, Snag Films, NCAA Vault and more. Clicker Awards
/ref> In April, Clicker launched its

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

Edition.Clicker: "Got An iPad? You'll Be Needing This"
/ref> Users who visit the site from their iPad will be automatically redirected to a special version of Clicker that provides a complete programming guide for the iPad, making it easy for iPad users to find what broadcast-quality programming is available to watch and what's not. Clicker also has mobile apps for the iPhone and Android devices which let users check-in to share what they're watching, find programming to watch on their phone, and manage their Playlist.
/ref>

History

Clicker received an $8 million Series A investment in October 2008 from investors

Benchmark Capital Benchmark is a venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Bob Kagle, Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff, Kevin Harvey, and Val Vaden. The firm is known for its equal partnership structure and focus on early-stage investing, typically leading the firs ...

and

Redpoint Ventures Redpoint Ventures is an American venture capital firm focused on investments in seed, early and growth-stage companies. History The firm was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, with offices in San Francisco, Los Angel ...

,SoCal Tech: ''Clicker Raises $8M'' -
/ref> and an $11 million Series B investment in February 2010 from Jafco Ventures, Benchmark and Redpoint.Market Watch: ''Clicker Receives $11 Million, Series B'' -
/ref> Board members include Bill Gurley of Benchmark, Geoff Yang of Redpoint, and

Slingbox The Slingbox was a TV streaming media device made by Sling Media that encoded local video for transmission over the Internet to a remote device (sometimes called placeshifting). It allowed users to remotely view and control their cable televisio ...

founder Blake Krikorian. Clicker's CEO is

Jim Lanzone James Lanzone (born January 20, 1971) is an American businessman and the CEO of Yahoo Inc. Previously, he was CEO of Tinder. He is also the former president and CEO of CBS Interactive, a top 10 Internet property that operated key websites includ ...

, former CEO of Ask.com. As part of its Series A round, Clicker also integrated ModernFeed.com, an online video directory. The company was in stealth mode until it debuted at TechCrunch 50 (September 2009), with the stated goal of becoming the equivalent of ''

'' for the

.TechCrunch: ''Clicker Wants to be TV Guide for the Web''
/ref> Clicker was runner-up for the Audience Award at the show. The website was in private beta for two months, and then launched publicly two months later at Gigaom's NewTeeVee Live New York Times
/ref> in San Francisco. The Clicker product received a large number of positive critical reviews, including the

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

and CNET.CNET: "Boxee gets Clicker App"
/ref>

acquired Clicker in 2011. As of now, Clicker re-directs t
www.tv.com
, with no previous Clicker functionality present. Since Clicker has ceased to operate, other services have launched that perform a similar function, such as

Movie Monitor A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...

Content

Clicker's

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

included more than 750,000 episodes, from over 12,000 broadcast quality shows, from over 2,500 networks, 30,000 movies, and 90,000 music videos from 20,000 artists.

Partnerships

On December 3, 2009, Clicker launched an application on

Boxee Boxee was a cross-platform freeware HTPC (Home Theater PC) software application with a 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the living-room TV. It enabled its users to view, rate and recommend content to their fri ...

, which allows users to watch Clicker content from their television. The Clicker app does not include all of the content that currently is available on the website. The app initially included 180,000 episodes from over 3,000 TV and Web shows, as well as 5,000 movies.

References

External links

Clicker – Watch TV and Movies Online
(re-directs t
tv.com
) {{DEFAULTSORT:Clicker.Com Internet search engines Internet properties established in 2009 Streaming television Defunct CBS Interactive websites

History

Content

Partnerships

See also

References

External links