This story’s flying a bit under the radar, as Amazon hasn’t even made an official announcement, but they’ve released an Instant Video Finder tool in beta.
You may be wondering what’s so great (or even necessary) about this, since you can already browse by category in the Instant Video store or use the categorized, sortable lists provided in our menu ribbon, above. What’s so great about it is this: the Instant Video Finder tool allows you to easily find Instant Videos of the exact type you’re interested in. No more browsing the the Thriller listings to find espionage films! No more browsing the Drama listings looking for Civil War films!
Love Horror-Comedy, Period Romance, Tech Noir Featuring Time Travel, Or Other Genre-Blending Movies?
At the top level, on the Instant Video Finder home page, there are genres/categories ranging from Heist to Dystopian, from Teen to Tech Noir, from Heroic Character to Satire, and there’s even a dedicated category for Stand-Up comedy! This is great news for me, a stand-up comedy nut who, up till now, had to browse the Comedy listings to find stand-up specials. It was very time consuming, and I usually ended up settling for something else when I couldn’t find what I really wanted.
The top-level page also allows you to filter the listings so you will only be shown Prime videos, movies, TV, or movies rated G or PG.
Got A Household Member With Very Specific Movie Tastes? No Problem!
This tool will solve a major problem in my household. My daughter’s favorite movie genre is horror-comedy, and the only way to find those movies previously was to browse the Horror listings and click through to read the descriptions on any whose titles or cover images implied a comic element. It was very time-consuming, and as often as not we’d just give up and end up watching a straight comedy.
In the new Instant Video Finder tool, I can click on the Horror genre, then on the Horror-Comedy subgenre list to find nothing but Horror-Comedies! Within the Horror genre I can also view lists of Instant Videos in the following sub-genres: Popular, Horror & Drama, Horror & Mystery/Thriller, Horror & Action/Adventure, Horror & Suspenseful, Horror & Science Fiction, Horror & Dystopian, Horror & Zombie, Horror & Stylized, Horror & Disaster, Horror & Exciting.
Works On Your Kindle Fire, Too!
To make this handy new tool available whenever you like on your Fire, we’ve created a shortened link our readers can use for their convenience:
1. Tap the Web menu link to open your web browser.
2. Enter the URL http://amzn.to/UHjLsZ
(Alternatively, you can copy this link, then paste it into an email and send that email to yourself. Open the email on your Fire —remember, there’s an app for that on the Apps > Device page on your Fire— and just tap the link in the email to automatically load the page in your Fire’s browser.)
3. When the page is loaded, tap and hold on the browser tab, then select Add To Device Favorites.
Now you can launch the tool anytime you want on your Fire by simply tapping on the star icon to open your Favorites menu and then tapping on the Video Finder page icon there!
Note For Roku Users:
The Instant Video Finder tool is not yet available on the Roku streaming device‘s menu, but with any luck, after it’s completed a successful beta period, it will be. Until then, you can use the tool on your Fire or computer to find videos, then click on the Add To Watchlist button for any you’d like to stream via your Roku. Your Watchlist is one of the available selections on the Roku’s Amazon Instant Video menu.