We keep on emphasising that we want the site to be clean and simple, without flashing extras, banners, ‘hot celebrity gossip’ or any such white noise. There are plenty of TV and film sites out there where you can find out pretty much anything except for reliable information about when and when your favourite shows and actors are on. If I want to know Nicole Kidman’s shoe size or be told that I’m just the person who would love Return of the Demon Duck Volume III, I’m fine – but find out when Frasier’s next showing on my living room telly? – not a chance.

That’s not to say that we don’t get excited about the possibilities of building on the basic LocateTV premise by adding various features that might enhance and personalise the whole experience. It’s so tempting because the TV and film genre particularly lends itself to add-ons and collaborations, as it permeates so many areas of our lives. Our discussions constantly move between the great applications we could create from all this data we are collecting, and the certainty that the sites we love ourselves are those that specialise, in a medium where inclusiveness usually just looks like anarchy.

This is why we’re planning a very collaborative approach as LocateTV launches, kicking off with the blogger event tomorrow and building on that with a two-week private beta phase. We’ll be choosing a mix of authoritative net voices but also everyday enthusiasts to try it out and give us feedback about what direction they think we should be headed. Do make sure you register if you want a chance to be part of private beta.

Do you agree with our instincts – is less becoming more in the over-developed Web 2.0?

Lottie

The first move toward private beta has been advanced like a virgin pawn upon the shining chessboard of Web 2.0.

Next week we are bringing together a handful of the UK’s most informed and enthusiastic TV and film bloggers in a very cool venue in London (you know who you are, you lucky few) to meet the team, have a chat and get a chance to play with the site.

We specifically wanted to avoid any kind of slick PR or press event, to focus on something relaxed and collaborative. I suggested this might work because my own introduction to the project, when Colin (Project Leader type thing) just sat with me in a room and told me about it, was so engaging. I loved his down to earth, genuine enthusiasm. The idea for LocateTV really did grow out of real world frustrations (see June’s The Big Idea post) and consequent determination to fill a big gap in the market for a TV and film content search engine devoted to a good user experience. In a world of ever more gimmicky and devious marketing strategies, simply talking to the guys who have created and nurtured this project feels refreshingly authentic.

Hopefully it’ll also be a chance to get some feedback about what these triallist love and what we could do better. This is early days and even when the site’s up in alpha we plan to continue improving, refining and enriching LocateTV, so a constant, honest dialogue with the people who will be using it every day is a central part of our philosophy.

We’ll let you know how it all goes next week, so you’ll also be able to start getting some opinions from real users outside our bubble. Pretty scary, pretty cool.

Lottie