In an unexpected move, Hulu has launched a desktop application for accessing their large video collection.

We say “unexpected” because it really only improves the viewing experience of the service for a very small percentage of users.  If you have a Windows Media Center PC or a Mac, you can hook them up to your TV and then use the remote control from your computer to control the browsing of the service from anywhere else in the room that you want.  While this is a nice idea, it still requires your computer to be hooked up to your TV, which means it has to be in phycial proximity to your television set.  If you already have that arrangement, you can already hook the computer to the TV with some cables and just stream the web site to your television screen.

This seems like an odd use of their resources as other video sites such as Joost have abandoned their desktop applications.  If they want to spend some time working on something, they should see about launching applications for devices such as the Xbox 360, TiVo or Apple TV.  These are devices already attached to the TV, in most cases people have routed Internet connections and it takes the computer totally out of the equation.  I am sure this is what we will see eventually from the company, but it just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to bother with the desktop app at this time.

You can decide for yourself by watching the introductory video below.