--- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, "Mike Meiser" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Just wondering if anyone had seen this, and what they thought of it. > > http://tubularapp.com/blog/16/screencast > > It's a MacOX aggregator for youtube, primarily it just provides an alternate > viewing experience, but it also converts youtube videos to an ipod friendly > format. > > I must admit I haven't tried it. As a software aggregator Democracy does > Youtube and it's pretty hard to beat these days.
I'm a Democracy fan, myself. From what I've seen lately, allowing the user/reader/viewer to automatically receive updates of your work is the easiest way to maintain an audience. People aren't interested in searching around all the time. They want to find something they like, subscribe to it, and when they get a new episode, they check it out whenever they feel like it. > The first question is how useful is something like this? All it really does > is provide an alternate experience, aside from the iPod conversion. Is > better experience enough? Is it even better experience or is it just > different with no apparent real advantages over viewing videos on > youtube.com? Potential advantages are playback integrity (from your drive vs depending on download speed/consistency) and not having to go to your subscriptions page. The disadvantage is for people that like to interact and leave responses to the videos they watch. If they watch them out of context, they might miss out on something they go to YouTube for. Then again, I haven't used the aggregator, so I don't know if they have any relation to the pages themselves or the comments. > Secondly, what does this say about aggregation in a youtube dominated world. > It includes no support as far as I can see for video podcasts. What is the > value in being an independant video podcast, do we even matter? I've been > wondering for a long time about the two diametrically opposed forces in the > vlogging world. > > Apple iTunes vs. Youtube. This came up in the debate about "The Vloggies". There are YouTube channels with hundreds of thousands of views on any given video. Is that because the same show would do the same numbers as an independent video podcast? Or, is that ONLY because the nature of YouTube is to attempt to socialize through making videos, commenting on videos (pro or con), creating video replies to videos and discussing and passing around links to videos to other YouTubers? Similarly, what kind of numbers would independent video podcasts do if they made a YouTube channel? That could best be answered by people/groups that have their videos both on YouTube and some non-YouTube site like blip, revver or brightcove. > It appears never the two shale meet. Who's going to be the winner, is it a > winner take all proposition? Is video podcasting picking up steam or is it > being sidelined? What will happen as portable media players, set top boxes, > cell phones, PDA's, and other hardware NOT the desktop computer start to > support syndicated video? Can youtube go to these devices when it's > dependant on Flash and dependant on being online, or will it's value be > erroded as portability starts to increase in importance in the viewing > experience? Are we going to more exclusive youtube deals with hardware > makers? How will this help or hurt innovation, and the free market for > media? Sorry, got to ask the tough questions. I don't think it's "winner take all". There are enough viewers for television, independent video podcasts and YouTube combined. I also don't think YouTube's going to be concerned with being anything BUT YouTube, a closed environment, for a veeeeery long time. Just going to the YouTube front page right this very second, they have "featured videos", including: Two Tones: 140,217 views Love Letters: 246,910 views ... and then I woke up: 364,871 views Twisted Sister Animated Video: 575,985 views another original Esmee song: 954,743 views There is ZERO need for YouTube to make itself "portable". I've been to parties where the jukebox was a laptop, a wireless connection and YouTube music videos. There are so many people that know that YouTube probably has what they're looking for, including that fight they didn't feel like paying for last night on PPV that expansion is probably the farthest thing from their minds. Also, wasn't there a thread here about how some of the networks are starting to make deals with YouTube for their own channels? MSM goes where the numbers are, the eyeballs are and the $$$ is. That's why MySpace got bought. There are so many users, and they're serving so many advertisements per day that there's no need for them to look outside of their current user base for potential opportunities. > Thirdly, is this third party software, the beginning of the end for youtube > or just a shot in the dark? If more and more applications building out > alternative interfaces to youtube will it undermine their business plan or > support it? Will youtube just cut them off at the knees and if they do, will > it alienate users increasingly used to getting what they want the way they > want it. YouTube is popular for three reasons: A) Everybody knows you can get all kinds of copyrighted material on YouTube, right now, for free, full screen, with as good audio as it was captured/encoded. B) There's an extensive feedback system, so people who like a video are inclined to watch it and pass it on to their friends... AND people who HATE it are inclined to watch it and pass it on to their friends... AND debates occur between the two camps that lead to even MORE viewing of that video. C) People who post themselves talking about _whatever_ get to express themselves, and again, whether they're loved or hated, they get feedback that makes them feel like they're being heard... that somebody cares, positively or negatively... that they make any difference at all to anyone. That's not going to change because someone created a way to siphon videos from the site, bypassing the advertisements and virtual socialization. The people that go to the site specifically for that socialization won't use it... unless it addresses that desire. > Fourth, would you use it? > > p.s. I've seen like apps for aggregating photos purely from FLickr.com. An > app called sniper. Web app interfaces for popular webservices is not a new > thing. Honestly, I've never known them to last unless they depend on open > standards. Frankly... to me it seems such apps while a whole lot of fun are > a dead end. Because the webservice, in this case youtube, arbitrarily > decides wether they live or die. For Apple has a habit of canibalizing the > best pieces of mac software and incorporating it into the system. I suspect > youtube would do the same if not kill such innovations outright, so as to > keep people's expectations from changing... ie. from asking original > questions. To me this is the tru danger of such monocultures. People's > expectations stop evolving, change slows and even stops. Because independant > developmental innovation cannot happen on such a platform when it does > happen, such as say, Democracy, it's so on the sidelines noone sees it. I would use it because I'm not interested in YouTube socialization. I'm not interested in what "Random Person X" thinks about a video I decided to watch. I'd rather have a feed, and if possible, I'd like in in the format of a Democracy or FireAnt where I might turn on my computer and come back later, and there's a new episode of whatever show that I wasn't thinking about any more to check for an update, though I enjoyed previous episodes of that show. Again, YouTube's success is built on a different kind of person. That person enjoys the comments and socialization as much as... if not more than the actual video itself. An aggregator won't have any effect on YouTube's success with these people. > In a manner, what I'm saying is... How stuck are we? Has our ability to > continue to innovate and affect change in the video blogging world forever > been sidelined. Is videoblogging now endoctrinated and affixed? If so is > video podcasting doomed to stagnation untill the next big thing comes along > and replaces it? > > -Mike > mefeedia.com > mmeiser.com/blog I suppose it depends on what you consider stagnation. Apparently, video podcasting is about self-expression, so until people stop expressing themselves, it can't become stagnant... ever. -- Bill C. http://ReelSolid.TV
