A while back I was involved with Joost, when it was still a standalone app, I had friends who were on the development team and was tinkering with building add-ons and widgets. The future seemed exciting and full of possibilities – and it was all about video.
A mere two years later, and I can barely go online without video being an intrinsic part of the daily web experience.
Despite the web being flooded with video content these days, its still easy carve it all up into different kinds. I’ll give that a go below.
First of all, there’s the copyrighted stuff that has been ported to the web -Hulu (which we cant get in the UK, but is like the iPlayer for the US networks), BBC iPlayer and 4OD.
Then you can get live TV and freeview channels on Zattoo.
After the copyrighted stuff we move into a whole new realm, and this is where it gets fun. These are all the sites that allow the syndication and placing of content, a selection of example can be seen below. They come in different shapes and sizes, and mean different things to different people.
Joost
Joost pushes all sorts of content through its site – mostly i dont get a lot out of the selection, but there is some licensed stuff.
Current
Current is a real digital TV channel, and its web content is blended between the TV stuff and the web-only bits. Its mostly news, movies, music and culture, but there is a good selection, including the Viewer Created stuff.
Youtube
What can we say – the original ‘broadcast yourself channel’ the good the bad and the ugly.
Vimeo
Vimeo is the Youtube for designers and creatives… slightly less popular, but nicely done and with good content generally.
Retrocycling Robot from Challenge Your World on Vimeo.
TED
The variety of informative content here is unsurpassed. All videos are talks given to live audiences and relayed to the web. Science, technology, art, culture and more. Superb stuff.
The Onion
Nobody beats The Onion. I think they invented satire. Even before the web-video period these guys rocked. Now its all in moving images.
Advocacy Group Decries PETA’s Inhumane Treatment Of Women
http://www.purepwnage.com
Projects like Pure Pwnage are sprouting up everywhere. The web-based sit-com/reality/weirdness is now being pushed to network TV. Can you say chicken and egg ?
Google video
The home of serious chunks of info. A huge selection and typical Google freedom. I love it solely as it hosts Zeitgeist.
Now, along with all these sites are the application based platforms. Enter Boxee, AppleTv etc… These apps do a selection of extra functions that appeal to users – connect to Online sites such as Youtube, Flickr NetFlix, Pandora, even the Apple movie trailer collection. They also allow you to browse your local machine and load content that you have lying around, and you can do all of this from your armchair, using a remote control.
These are just a selection of the video/content sites that offer a landscape of content, if you look hard there are hundreds more in the vein of comedy, movies, gaming, technology etc… and we didnt even talk about Vodcasting… and did i mention live event streams like the ASP World tour events ?.
In a nutshell, along with torrent’s, this is why I dont watch TV anymore. You can pick and choose whatever you want to view, and for the most part totally avoid advertising.
