Searching in Zinc

We’ve had some questions about search within Zinc so I wanted to take a minute to explain our search implementation. There are times when you have heard of a movie or TV show, but don’t know where to find it. We implemented a search capability over the “feeds” that carry movies and TV shows. We are not Google, and recognized that the existing search engines at the content providers could generate even more results. They have access to all the content on their site, and their affiliate sites.

At the ZvPresents page, users can enter a search string in the text box at the top and click the search button to get episodes or movies from CBS, ABC, Fox, Hulu, CW, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and from paid sites Amazon and Netflix. If you only want free results; then inside Settings> PC Settings, users can set the preference to ignore results from each of the paid sites. As a convenience to the user, the search results page also includes tabs at the top for YouTube, Hulu, and Google. Clicking those tabs will launch the same search phrase on the search engines at those sites, providing the user with more results. We’ve also provided access to search at the top page from both Hulu and YouTube.

Our search results use show name, episode name and description to rank the results, but currently don’t index actors or directors. As more content providers supply that metadata we will add it to the indexing. Search results are RSS feeds and can be added to favorites. If you’re a big fan of the Simpson’s, use search results to provide you access to an even larger set of free episodes.