This post won’t change your life, but Live Matrix might. Created by a former SVP at TV Guide and a pioneer in semantic web technology, Live Matrix promises to keep you updated on What’s When on the Web™. In a nutshell, it’s a grid of all the live upcoming events scheduled to happen anywhere on the internet, so you’ll never miss a beat—or a Gilt sale.
Like everything else these days, users create a custom profile and “follow” content channels that interest them. I signed up yesterday, and currently, I’m following Wired for Wine, Mingle Media TV, G4 TV, The Indy Radio Factor, Gilt Women, and FORA.tv. There have been some hiccups in this Beta version, such as unreasonable “account suspension” and the profile photo upload appears not to be working. Little things like that are expected, though, so I’m not holding it against them. However, as of right now, the whole site seems to be a little bit of an over glorified QVC timetable, as the majority of happenings revolve around product sales, reviews, and web infomercials. That, too, I’m willing to let slide for awhile because, honestly, this whole idea is a beautiful step forward for the future of intelligent content streaming, channeling, and scheduling on the internet.
It’s refreshing that someone is wrangling up what’s useful on the web and organizing it in a practical way. And as content improves, which it undoubtedly will, Live Matrix stands to become really, really important to daily life. My best-of content scenario includes intelligent news hubs, niche lifestyle channels, and maybe even the return of music videos. I know that all of these things do exist out there on the web, but to have them aggregated, scheduled, and frequently updated is something truly advantageous.