OVGuide.com - crazy & chaotic, but amazingly useful

When I first heard about OVGuide.com I couldn't wait to check it out. What a great idea to have all the video content available online in one convenient place to search from. I quickly signed on, got my own account, and started exploring.

Upon first glance OVGuide.com looks like it's a dream, but after really exploring OVG it seemed more like a nightmare. The site looks too chaotic; the homepage is overwhelmingly crowded with paid ads promoting all sorts of sites that have videos, live streaming TV sites from around the world, regular US broadcast TV, news, sports, etc.

OVG is simply a guide to other sites, a portal of portals is really what it is... and a way for the sites owners to make money selling expanded text ads. But it can also be very helpful to those of us who watch TV, films, and videos online.

At the top of their homepage they have a search engine, which you will immediately try to use to find a specific TV show, film, or video. I searched for a Showtime series WEEDS and was given 10 results of which only 3 actually carried complete episodes from the first 3 seasons of the show. Next I searched for an old favorite of mine HIGHLANDER: THE SERIES and got 20 results with only 3 sites that carried the show, but only had season 1 available to watch online. All the other results were for other HIGHLANDER films and trailers.

Next I searched for another Showtime series I watch THE L WORD. I immediately got 4 sites from their search engine and I was able to watch episodes I had missed the first time. I really appreciated this as I had been searching all over the net for the epi's I missed and could not find them anywhere. One quick search at OVG and I had a choice of sites to choose to watch my preferred show from.

Though the chaotic nature of OVG was off-putting at first, once I delved into it to try to find specific shows I was very impressed. After this experience I bookmarked OVGuide.com and plan on visiting it regularly. All they need now is for a zip code TV guide so I can also use their site as my own tv guide... my own online video guide.

I found OVGuide.com because I'm a bzzagent and it was suggested at their site. Read my frogpond review at bzz (if you want, but I've posted a much more complete review right here).