Hulu's caption search lets non-US residents read what they're missing

Rejoice, fellow non-Americans!

Today, let us celebrate both our non-Americanness AND Hulu's new, amazing Caption Search. While we can't actually watch anything on Hulu, we can now follow the script in full, closed-caption goodness! Better yet, there's even a tiny thumbnail next to each search result to help kick-start your imagination -- who needs actual moving pictures? If I shut my eyes I can almost hear Sylar's slow, sensual sibilance. Almost.

Hulu have made some great advances recently, as part of their 'Hulu for the Holidays' initiative, but this one wins the prize. Now, if you want to revisit a favourite piece of dialogue, or catch the name of a character that you missed during the original broadcast, there's Captions Search. Go on, give it a go; it's surprisingly comprehensive, and very accurate.

With the caption search there's also the addition of 'heat maps' -- graphs that show you the most popular parts of specific episodes. For any video that's had enough views, heat maps will appear, allowing you to navigate to the most popular sections.

I tell you what would be cool though: two heat maps, one for visual searches, and one for caption searches. One would show peaks for cute girls/boys currently on screen, and the other would show funny moments or spectacular script crafting. Imagine the graphs for House: Cuddy in her latest, tightest, tiny dress, and the bantering between Wilson and House. That would be neat.

[via Hulu Blog]

Tags: captions, hulu, search, streaming, tv