Are you a fervent acolyte of the on-demand video streaming revolution and yet still yearn for some of the old-school television charm? OttoPlay is an add-on for Netflix (and YouTube and Hulu) that brings back the old channel surfing feel, letting you skip across “channels.” It may be more rewarding than normal recommendations, at least.


OttoPlay comes as a Chrome extension, and once you’ve got it up and running in Google’s browser, head to your on-demand service of choice. Click the extension icon and a series of themed channels (kids, drama, comedy and so on) appear on the screen, spread across Netflix, Hulu and YouTube (if you’re outside the US you may run into access problems).

Of course, the layout of these different ‘channels’ into times and slots is just an illusion created by the app, but it’s an alternative way of seeing what’s available on your favorite services and finding something you might be interested in. Use the virtual remote on the right to flip through the channels or to focus on one service in particular.