You know how you covertly check the website of that cheesy sci-fi series or British sitcom-with-laughtrack you love, but can't admit you watch, to check for new episodes while nobody's looking? Now, you can actually have Google send you a reminder to your Android or iOS device when there's something new to watch with the "Remind Me" feature in Google Now. At the end of August, Google Operating System noticed the update, and after a few weeks of limited availability and functionality, the feature is now live for many of you to try!
If you're as lazy as me when it comes to figuring out the latest Google updates, you may have never used the existing "Remind Me" feature for location and time based reminders. However, the new functionality that works within the same Google knowledge graph of search results adds reminders that are worth paying attention to by cinephiles. All you have to do is search for a TV show, upcoming film, or even a director you like, and tap the "Remind Me" button to get a reminder when there's new content out.
From Google Operating System:
If you search Google for music artists, actors, books, TV shows and you're logged in, you'll see a new "Remind me" button in the Knowledge Graph card. Click the button and "Google Now will remind you about new releases/movies/episodes on your phone or tablet"...You can manage them from the Google Search app on your mobile device: just go to Settings, My Stuff and select Reminders.
It's not clear if this is something that could genuinely compete with operations like canistream.it or gowatchit, especially as there have been some complaints from users so far that not all applicable search results (e.g. for PBS and NOVA) trigger the "Remind Me" function. (Not to mention, this is currently limited to US users, and not all of us at that.)
But as Google does a full roll out of the feature, perhaps we'll see a polishing up of these kinks. Having a reminder system built-in to search results could be a lot more convenient than going to and creating a queue on a third site. And if Google keeps adding more functionality to "Remind Me" it could mean even more reason to use it, as suggested by Ars Technica:
A reminders app is always useful, but a cloud-powered reminders app has more potential. Here's hoping Google adds a bunch more supported categories (like sports teams). App integration would be great, too.
Is this something you would use, or are there already too many ways to get reminders about stuff you'd love to watch? Anybody used "Remind Me" for entertainment so far?
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