In this article, David Pogue mentions Netflix’ neat technique for letting viewers fast forward streaming movies.

Remember, these videos are streamed to your TV (in other words, played from the Internet as you watch), so fast-forwarding and rewinding is a problem. The part of the movie you’d want to fast-forward to hasn’t arrived at your house yet.

Netflix pioneered the clever workaround: when you press the right-arrow key, little thumbnails of coming scenes flash by, representing 10-second intervals.  You wait about 15 seconds for Netflix to resume playback at the new spot.

Here’s a look at the UI in action as you scroll to the right:

netflix

netflix

netflix