Philo - Watch TV with people all over the country!

Do you like watching TV? Do you like the social experience of watching TV with other people? How about discussing shows with your friends? Or with people all over the country?

Mashable's always good to watch for up and coming social media trends, and yesterday's another great example of that. They had an article on a new social media idea called "Philo." Or, as they call it, "Twitter + Foursquare for TV Fanatics."

"A new web and iPhone app called Philo makes watching TV interactive by having users “tune in” to TV programs as if they were checking in to venues on Foursquare or Gowalla, then discuss shows in a Twitter or Facebook newsfeed-like conversation stream while they’re watching."

It's actually quite the interesting concept. One of the cool things about watching your favourite TV shows is discussing them with a bunch of other fans (ok, maybe that's just me, but it is common). Philo gives you that opportunity with that chat-like feature.

Remember when I talked about "live-tweeting" TV shows? That always has a couple of downsides:

1) Annoying your Twitter followers who don't watch the stuff

2) Annoying your Twitter followers who are in a different time zone and haven't seen what you're talking about yet. Spoilers!!!!

I think Philo, if I'm reading Mashable's article correctly, removes both those problems. It certainly removes the first. You would be chatting with those already watching the show. Of course, you can broadcast what you're watching to Twitter and Facebook, but at least it won't be a constant stream of updates (unless you're intentionally trying to piss off your followers).

It doesn't appear to be useful for Canadians, unfortunately, so I can't try it out for you. I tried to join, and it didn't allow me to move forward without selecting a cable provider. It takes the cable provider choices from the zip code that you enter (hence the Canadian postal code not working). I put 90210 in there and got a plethora of Beverly Hills cable company choices.

Thus, I offer this to you just as something you might want to take a look at. You know, if you're a TV addict and your husband/wife is getting tired of you talking to him/her about your favourite show when they couldn't give a shit about it.

Is this the new wave of social media? Maybe more of a side street, but a potentially interesting one nonetheless.