The improvements have been outlined on the Hulu Blog, although you are likely to notice them when you watch a video. For example, I noticed the changes immediately and headed over to the blog to check out what has been included.

Changes revolve around the convergence of new technology now available, “lingering ideas form the product team, and user feedback.” These changes are expected to make the joys of watching television programming online easier, and these changes should be improved on further in the future.

Adaptive Bitrate Streaming

Using ActionScript 3 and other technologies, Hulu is now bale to shift video bitrates and resolutions up and down continually to match the user’s bandwidth. We all know that bandwidth can increase and decrease every thirty seconds, so this helps if you want to maintain a stream, but take a small hit in quality. For example, the site will drop the quality from 480p to 360p without any major stuttering.

A number of settings are available to help you use this feature – you can choose to have Hulu to automatically select the best quality, or choose from three other qualities.

Ad Volume Normalization

We all hate the ads that appear to be three times as loud as the program the ad is following, and this is also prevalent on the Internet through streaming video. Hulu has improved the ad volume through normalizations, making adjustments on the fly. The player compares the content’s most recent audio levels with a “precomputed audio value for the ad and brings them into line dynamically.”

Improved Closed Captioning

Two new display options have been included for viewers who either want to read the text or who are hard of hearing. These features include a new yellow text feature as well as a text on solid black background.

Sneak Preview

Previously, you would have had to watch an ad to see advanced previews of the video. This new feature lets you see images of upcoming scenes and what to expect through a small preview. It’s likely that they’ll improve this in the future and offer small video previews (say 10-30 seconds) if the programming allows it.

Heat Maps

The Captions tab currently displays a heat map of the video based on what was spoken during the video, while the new heat map is based on video that may not include spoken text, instead based on what areas of the videos users have enjoyed the most.

Larger Player

Among the other changes to the player, Hulu has also increased the size of the video by 25%, to 720×404 pixels, meaning the video is no longer scaled when displayed in the highest resolution. The player defaults to chromeless, with no controls, giving the player a cleaner, more refined look. A number of the controls are viewable when you hover over the player, like the fullscreen, pop-out, and embed links, either to the side or below the video.

The “continuous play” feature has been renamed “autoplay,” making it more convenient to go to the next video in your queue.

Ad Tailor

TV advertisements are generally not that relevant to the watchers. Typically, the advertisers only have generalized data, such as demographics – the average age of viewers, location, and habits, but the new Ad Tailor found on Hulu lets you give more information to advertisers. A new “is this ad relevant to you?” button is displayed at the top of the ad, which helps improve the relevancy of advertisements served. All responses will remain confidential.

HTML5 – Where Does it Fit Hulu’s Model?

Much of the content on Hulu is served by the “traditional” TV networks, but some of the profits go to funding the Hulu site through a profit split. The site sells advertisements to be included within the programming – anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or more for each ad. In addition, the content needs to be protected using DRM so users cannot download the content and advertisers can still be served useful stats.

The war between HTML5 and Flash is continuing to rage on, and Hulu has stated that, at the moment, the technology isn’t there for serving video, although they have stated that HTML5 would be implemented in the future, should the DRM and other technologies be implemented.

Problems Reported by Users

A number of complaints have come with the changes, ranging from shortcuts being removed to bugs to some general annoyances. There is no way to go back to the old player, although Hulu will likely solve some of these problems as they are reported. After all, their blog post announcing these features was titled, “Pardon Our Dust.”

1. MediaFire

MediaFire lets you upload files with (or without) an account. You’ll be able to upload an unlimited number of files, up to 200MB in size. You have no upload limits, either. A number of Pro accounts are available, ideal for users who want to share even more large (up to 2GB) files.

2. DropBox

Dropbox is an extremely flexible (and simple) file sharing and syncing service designed to work across all operating systems and platforms. The online backup offers automatic backup of your ifles, the ability to undelete files and folders, and thirty days of undo history. Features don’t stop there though, so check out the site.

3. FileDropper

FileDropper may not exactly be free, but it has one of the largest file size limits out of any service – 5GB. A free seven-day trial is available, while plans start at $0.99 per month. A Gold Plan is available for just $10, which gives you 250GB of space.

4. drop.io

Drop.io makes a great solution for people who want to share files with others in a simple manner. An API is also available to take advantage of the service. You may upload up to 100MB per “drop.”

5. Google Docs

While Google Docs may not be the best solution for files (it’s better for documents, as the name states), it offers the ability to quickly upload and store files up to 1GB in size (and you can increase the storage to 16TB. Cost of the storage is still quite high, especially if you are only upload your family movies.

Conclusion

While I am sure that you’ve heard of at least one of the services above, there may be some that you haven’t yet tried out. What file hosting site do you prefer to use to host and share your files?

[image credit: stock.xchng]

Advanced options are available, but they are only ideal for those who have a specific function in mind, like adding footers, changing the page height, or adding a table of contents. You can also drag the bookmarklet to your browser bookmarks bar, and you’ll have instant access to the tool, giving you the ability to create a PDF for any webpage.

The service appears to have launched recently, as their Twitter account has only been active for about three weeks. Nonetheless, the service makes PDFs that are compatible and usable (images and links are clickable), ideal for anyone who needs to send or share web pages.

[via Lifehacker]

Now, the site may appear quite similar to popular sites like Craigslist, although this site makes the whole process extremely social. You won’t need to create a new account using all-new credentials: simply use any other social networking site like Google, MySpace, or Facebook to login to the service and begin creating your own profile.

The site has been around for at least three months, but it hasn’t quite reached a level of popularity to give it an advantage over competing services, which offer the ability to list much more than just your skills (products and other goods). What really makes the site unique is how you can browse through the listings and communicate with others through the site.

While the service appears to be based in the U.S., there is the ability to switch between a number of other countries using the drop-down link in the header bar.

In these times, sites like these would be great solutions for people who are in need of services, but don’t want to go to the professionals, helping them save money. The site solves this problem, offering the ability to search between individual and professional members, as well as premium members (although no details are listed about this membership).