gowatchit.com

This post isn't so much about gear as it is about software...brand new software that makes it incredibly easy to keep track of movies you want to see. I used to be a dyed-in-the-wool Netflix fanboy. I was one of their very first customers when they launched back in 1998...that's when they used to rent by the disc...before they created the subscription model. Heck, my company did a lot of the advertising for Netflix for 7 years. So as a client and a marketing partner, I loved Netflix.

When I read about a movie I liked, I'd go to the Netflix site and put it in my queue, knowing full well that at some point in would be out on Blu-Ray, DVD or streaming. Hubris got the better of Netflix and the wheels came off in 2011. Now I get most of my movies elsewhere.....a lot of different places, actually. Direct TV, Amazon Instant Video, Amazon Prime Instant Video, iTunes, Xbox, Netflix Streaming, etc. But what I miss most was that consolidated queue that would keep track of all of my movies on my "must see" list.

Fortunately, the Internet abhors a vacuum. I guess it would be better said that Plexus Entertainment abhors a vacuum. They have gone and created a web site where you can keep track of all of the movies that you want to see. The website is gowatchit.com. The real beauty of the site is that tracks your "must see movies" across all of the major distribution channels and notifies you when it becomes available on each. When your movie is in the theaters you'll get an email. Ditto when your movie is released on DVD or Blu-Ray or streaming or online. As your movie launches on each new distribution channel, you get notified.

I was reading the review in today's Wall Street Journal about an extraordinary film called "A Separation". It's an Iranian film that I knew I wanted to see after reading the review and I was bummed that I no longer had my Netflix tracking capability except for Netflix "streaming only". Then I remembered that I had just signed up with gowatchit.com yesterday. I went there, found the film and clicked off every distribution notification I could. What great software. Elegant, easy and you can track down virtually every movie ever made.

The site is in beta right now, but it is as polished and finished as they come. The service is free...no strings attached. You can get a private account that just communicates with you by email. If you're a fan of social media and sharing, there's a Facebook version that lets you share your queue with friends. That lets you see what movies are on each of your friends' lists and hook up to see them together if you choose (my son Patrick and his friends often watch movies together over Xbox Live).

This is a fabulous web site that I think is going to become  a real force. Get in on the ground floor during the beta and enjoy what I will think be one of the web's great sites: gowatchit.com