If you’re in the minority of web users who use Google’s eponymous Gmail service, you’ll perhaps be better positioned to understand why LocateTV exists. Let me explain.

For years, managing your email online followed a very traditional format. Whether you were a user of Hotmail, Yahoo or AOL – each service had only a few minor design tweaks to define their individuality, all fitting very snugly into a common model. And to a lesser or greater extent, it worked fine. I was able to keep up to date with the latest messages from friends and family, as well as receive sound advice regarding means to improve my sexual capabilities. I was happy.

Back in 2005, Google surprised all by entering the market and rethinking the way we view our email. It was a bit difficult to get to grips with at first, but (two years later) it is hard to imagine a better crafted email client – whether browser- or desktop-based – and there is no chance of me going back to the ‘old’ ways. What is it about Gmail that makes it better, and why am I devoting so many words to this subject?

Gmail is superior because it’s simply webmail designed for use on the web. Google didn’t follow the format dictated by the competition. Instead, they completely reworked the concept of webmail to make it more accessible, usable, and manageable by throwing out the antiquated designs.

Now for LocateTV. There already exists an abundance of online TV schedules that basically take what you get in a newspaper or magazine and put it in your browser. Granted, all but the most basic have a standard search function but LocateTV does for these what Gmail did for webmail – it takes the concept of a TV schedule and reinvents it for the Internet.

Does it do a good job at this? How would you want to see it improved? Drop us a comment and let us know.

One of my few memories of pre-school involves me being unjustly dismissed to the cloakroom as punishment for saying that I was bored. I have no idea what this was intended to achieve but two decades later, I’ve become an armchair anarchist – it just goes to show, doesn’t it?

The reason I mention such a traumatic recollection is to illustrate the point that, at LocateTV, we don’t do bored. Every second of the day is spent improving our service, developing ways to take things forward, spreading the word, and (of course) television-related research…that’s where the armchair comes in.

Lottie and I recently found some time to set up a LocateTV channel on YouTube, which we’ve already begun to populate with a short video showing what LocateTV is and how it can let you know when your favourite shows, films and actors are on the small screen. In the future, we hope to include videos that highlight some of our features and maybe even some behind the scenes footage with the LocateTV team.

So, if you want to watch Lottie take you on a tour of LocateTV, showing how you can use the search engine to find out when and where the next episode of Heroes is playing, if hunky George Clooney is going to be cropping up on your box any time soon, how to watch CSI online, and if Sleepless in Seattle will be on in time for her visit to America – watch the video!