FLICKPEEK.COM...MAMA SAID THERE WOULD BE SITES LIKE THESE!

FlickPeek.com is one of those sites your mama warned you about. It's an online video library built with user submitted links and updated weekly. It's also an advertiser's dream, where designers have so closed intermixed the site's content with advertisements that the user can not tell the difference until the click of the mouse is complete. That's when users end up on a pay-to-view site called live-tv.com.

The advertisements

Normally, the movies make up the most important area of a review, but in this case, warning users about the site's questionable advertising practices trumps the entertainment content. FlickPeek really is a free site, but it interweaves its ads within its own content links without the usual frames or borders that denote banner ads on other sites. It also places these ads in areas of the page normally devoted to site content.

It only gets worse. Every movie title one clicks on brings up a pop up for Zango toolbar, a known spyware program. The pop up window claims that by installing the Zango toolbar, the site will be free to use. Don't believe it. Don't install it. The hitch is that even if one doesn't install it, the site is still free, but it doesn't say that. If one doesn't install the toolbar, closes the pop up window it opened, and clicks on the movie link, the movie still loads. Flick-peek doesn't even keep you on its site. It ships the user off to the film's host site, such as tudou.com or veoh.com, a blessing actually, since those site aren't privy to constant spyware pop ups.

Another nasty trick is having two similarly titled links, one that leads to free content, and one that leads to pay content. In tiny print, the words “sponsored listing” appears above or beneath an integrated ad (placement varies). Don't bother to click on the orange graphics in the upper right hand corner that read “Movie Channels” or “TV Show Channels,” etc. All six of the orange buttons lead to a separate site, live-tv.net, of which Flickpeek is an affiliate. Live-tv.net charges a fee for one to download software that supposedly makes network and cable/satellite TV stations free. Or, you could just click on the text link “TV Shows” on flickpeek and watch for absolutely free.

Film and television content

Flickpeek states clearly on each page that it does not host any of the videos available on the website, nor does it have any connection with sites like youtube.com that do host the videos. The site takes cataloging media content seriously and users will find hundreds of viewing choices, all alphabetized, among the categories of “Movies,” “TV Shows,” “Anime,” “Cartoons,” “Sports,” and “Music.” The site also includes a category link called “Internet TV” but that is not part of its database. It takes one off the FlickPeek site to TeevoTV, which is a free site, but only works using Internet Explorer. It features TV stations from throughout the world, but even using IE, couldn't connect to any choices.

Picture quality

Since FlickPeek doesn't even embed the content into its site, it's really all a question of the video's originating host. In the case of “CSI” Season 1, Episode 3, “Crate 'n Burial”, the host was www.ouou.com which provided a true television-like experience, only better, since one may alter the screen size. OUOU's viewer is a dream - completely scalable with full screen capabilities, mute, and a separate volume control, plus the holy grail of online viewers – a lightness control – a necessity when viewing video online since video quality varies widely, and many reproduced videos come out too dark to see the action. This copy only needed adjustment in the earliest scenes though and featured great sound quality. The episode played through on a beautiful, flowing stream with no glitches, no jumps, no lag.

Although the viewer was bare bones, the stream experience for “The Game,” Season 1, episode “How Tasha Got Her Groove Back” was the same high quality. You Tube hosted this episode, which had extremely clear resolution when the viewing window was 4” x 6” or smaller, but lost clarity when maximized. Also, the episode couldn't be viewed in full screen.

Conclusion

FlickPeek has one of the most comprehensive TV/movie databases available, but the spyware threats and annoying ads don't seem worth it since none of the content is housed on the site. For a safer and more enjoyable online viewing experience, why not visit the sites from which FlickPeek draws its content?

In order to become a real player among the existing content libraries, the site needs to make three major changes:

• Drop all spyware or adware downloads from its site and/or advertising base,

• Reorganize the site to separate the ads from the content and make the difference between the two clearly apparent to users,

• Develop its own high quality viewer to embed the library content so users remain on the site.
  

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This post guest-blogged by Carlie Lawson.

Comments

[danna]

Well there are many IPTV sites nowadays, and this one seems to follow suit. but there is so much downloading and waiting, I reckon that there is better. one of my favoruites is viewmy.tv that doesnt have nay downloads and you dont even have to sign up. that is what I am after when I am in a rush....!!

[willmax]

if you are looking for multi-lingual tv, online tv social community, social tv network, internet tv stations, tv channels, free global internet tv, broadband channels, live webcast, customized tv programmes, After testing various TV software and visiting loads of sites. most of them offer a free trial or preview and then they make you pay to sign up, or are cluttered with ads. I think that is ridiculous... so ive done my research and have found a couple of really decent sites. The first one Id like to draw your attention to is (www.viewmy.tv) This site has almost 1300 channels from around the globe and counting. it is free to register and they dont ask for stupid details, just your username and email address. It actually streams live channels so you dont have to download any and they have a pretty easy way of finding the channel you want. You can search through genre, country, region or name of the channel. oh and there are no ads either. Check this one out. With over 1300 channels from hundreds of countries, loads of features like channel rating, user recommendations, live chat, profile pages and much much more.

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[Adrian Keys]

Sounds intriguing guys, time is always of the essence.

We sincerely hope the proof will be eating...

[FlickPeek]

Dear Adrian,

Thank you for the thorough analysis of the FlickPeek of '08. It is just now that I discovered it.

We have taken to the advice given, which was similar to yours and have redeveloped the website.

We kindly ask you to refocus your attention on FlickPeek and give us some feedback.

Thank you again.

The FlickPeek Team
http://www.facebook.com/pages/FlickPeek/155764762227
http://www.flickpeek.com

[Carlie Lawson]

Hey FlickPeek,
Thanks for visiting JollyJo.tv! Glad to hear you're continuing to update and improve FlickPeek. I hope we can take another look at it soon.