09 ottobre 2008

BBC, motore di ricerca potenziato e iPlyer sui mobili

Davvero notevole il motore di ricerca dei programmi radiotelevisivi della BBC, appena potenziato e rivisto. Per ogni parola chiave ora vengono elencati i programmi che si possono consultare con l'iPlayer, il lettore universale per l'accesso via Internet ai contenuti del broadcaster pubblico britannico, e le informazioni di corredo, le notizie, i riassunti degli episodi delle serie... Una miniera di informazioni in un pratico format aggregato. Da provare (qui a fianco riporto la videata della ricerca delle parole "Silvio Berlusconi".)

Take a look at the latest version of the BBC's search service.
For the first time, relevant BBC TV and radio programmes are included in your search results alongside news articles, other BBC web pages and links to external websites.
About a third of the most popular searches on the BBC seach engine are for programmes. While selected programme websites have always been available in search, you will now find two new types of results:

• programmes that you can watch or listen to in BBC iPlayer
• and episode pages for all programmes broadcast on radio or television in the last eighteen months (since we began /programmes our new approach to publishing programme information).

Most of these episode pages will not let you watch or listen to programmes, but you can read about that episode's storyline and cast, and in the future these pages will contain richer information including clips, like this.
The search results pages have also taken on the new BBC style and we are experimenting with new ways of displaying the results. I think it looks great - let us know your thoughts.
I am going to post about this in more depth in a couple of weeks - once we have some performance figures and feedback.
This is the first of a series of planned improvements to search in the next few months, so any observations from you are very welcome indeed.
And for anyone who wants a more in-depth view of how BBC site search works, one of our senior software engineers, Andy Webb, will be posting in a couple of days.
Un'altra novità riguarda l'iPlayer stesso che da oggi si apre ancora di più al mondo dei dispositivi palmari (telefonini e lettori multimendiali vari). Adesso iPlayer può funzionare anche sui dispositivi che supportano il sistema di protezione dei contenuti di Microsoft. Non si tratta in questo caso di accesso realtime perché questi lettori in genere non hanno connettività Internet, ma adesso gli spettatori potranno scaricare i loro contenuti preferiti e guardarseli successivamente.
As part of our ongoing mission to make BBC iPlayer available on more devices, I'm pleased to announce that BBC iPlayer TV programmes can now be downloaded to portable media players that are able to support Windows Media-protected content.
Of course, BBC radio downloads and podcasts have been portable to different devices for sometime - just point your device to bbc.co.uk/podcasts and you'll get a version for iPod/iPhone, for Sony PSP and for some Nokia phones. But this is the first time that you can play BBC iPlayer TV programmes on a range of portable media devices.
So far, we've tested BBC iPlayer on:
• Sony Walkman E and S series
• Archos 605 WIFI and Internet Media Tablet
• Philips GoGear 52xx series
• Samsung YP-P2 and YP-Q1
• Nokia N96
See full list of devices on which iPlayer is available.
These devices do not have internet connectivity, so we're talking about a download rather than a streaming experience. What both these devices have in common is that they support Windows Media Protected playback - that is, they support Windows DRM for portable devices, which allows us to make our programmes available for download on them.

Nessun commento: