Online Video Services Taste Test
I’ve been testing a few of the online video services, not sure which one is best for my needs, or which ones will emerge the winner. I suspect when it comes to technology adoption getting the influencers to use it first is key. Think about Blogger, Wordpress, and Typepad. There’s tons of other blog software out there, but we don’t hear about them.
Blip
Here’s a video I just took this afternoon in Chicago of Millenium Park, it’s an interactive digital public art piece (although not picture the mouths spurt out water, and there’s waterfalls that flow over the LEDs). You can view the Fountains in a small version in Quicktime and webpage, or the higher-res Quicktime. I like how flash videos load fast, but often the quality is noticably lower in sound quality and color desaturation as I suspect the files are being optimized. I also recorded The “Bean”, Higher Res. and the view from the top of the John Hancock (Higher Res) building on the 95th floor.
Revver
I’ve started uploading some videos in Revver. The flash interface is pretty slick. did you know Revver splits revenue with the uploader? Update: I couldn’t publish my other videos above as we could be making revenue off other’s art work. I’ll take some orginal content today. I love the dashboard concept, makes it easy for me. (Update: here’s my revver video, I uploaded one before of the fountains above, and couldn’t be used as it’s a protected art work. Since Revver is generating revenue, uploaders must be selective in the process)
Google and YouTube
I’ve uploaded videos to Google Video and YouTube before, view my Online Video Archive.
Things I’m Looking For
I’ll make a decision to which video services I’ll be using. Some of the requirements are, high res video, blog friendly, rss/microformat, easy to upload, unlimited upload storage, fast streaming, no-cost, easy to use interface. Revenue Generation is nice, but not why I do it. (picky huh?).
6 Comments so far
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Hey Jeremiah — what about text commenting/video response capability and tagging? They’d be on my requirements list, but are they on yours?
Hi Jeremiah, although I am employed at AOL, there were several ways AOL’s Uncut Video service impressed me (don’t worry there are frustrations too ;)). I had ability to upload .dv files, which I think helps with the high res. I was able to play the video and find it right away. That meant I could share the video right away both explicitly (giving the link) and implicitly (via tags).
I became disillusioned with YouTube when my video took 2-3 weeks to be found by clicking on the *techcrunch* tag. I had used Blip at one point which is VERY blog friendly but had technical issues in getting it into my blog and it took some time for them to process it. I may take a look at it again. I have yet to check out revver, but they seem to have a very nice interface (see mikipedia’s blog).
…just my rudimentary 2 cents. Let me know what you go with…moving videos/service/identity can be painful so it’s good that you are doing the research now;)
Jeremiah - I’d have thought the company’s ToS would have been one of the most important considerations. In this regard Blip.tv comes out well ahead of Google and YouTube (I haven’t looked into Revver).
Amy
most of these sites have the ability to let viewers add comments or tags. I just kind of considered they were a default.
Holly, I tried to sign up for the AOL one, but I got hung up in the registrations process, after a few tries I decided to move on. I agree with you, picking the right one now is key. I think it’s too early in the game to claim one favorite.
Tom, yeah I can guess Terms of Service are key too.
Big thought 2:
Someone will make a plugin in wordpress/typepad that lets you do this on your own server. It will include all of the features listed below, including ways to ‘network’ among your blogger friends.
It’s just a matter of time.
[…] This is cool, Erin Crane and Liz Dunn bring a daily video blog that delivers the news that Technorati (a blog indexer) is tracking. Unlike traditional news sources, This is BOTTOM-UP news as it’s coming from the people, the blogopshere (or at least I hope it turns out that way). Interesting how they’re using the Revver service, I’ve experimented with it, it’s has a unique revenue sharing model. […]