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YouTube -- The Flickr of Video?
An anonymous reader writes "A new folksonomy website that seems to be catching on is YouTube, a service similar to Flickr, except that it is for sharing and hosting short video clips instead of photos. Like Flickr, its core functionality is implemented in Flash. Videos can be tagged, searched, discussed, etc through a social network. YouTube has developer APIs, RSS feeds, and the ability to embed videos directly into other web pages. The website was recently profiled on TechCrunch as an up-and-coming Web 2.0 application."
While it works well in Internet Explorer, I couldn't get videos to play in Firefox. In Opera, they started to play but after a few seconds it stops and wants to report a serious error to Microsoft. The second time I tried in Opera, it caused the screen to black out and rebooted my computer.
At one point and time, I had the following on my computer:
I needed all of those just so I could play video, since every website had its own different format. And my system was crawling at a slow when it loaded. When I looked at the system tray, it was filled with 15+ icons.
So I got rid of them all. I got tired of keeping track of what program was calling home. I got tired of Flash loading into websites when I did not want the Flash (like ESPN). I think the final straw was the slashdot story saying how Flash was not secure, that programs could exploit it. I figure the less programs running on a computer, the more secure that computer is.
Why can't everyone use one standard like MPEG? What is wrong with MPEG? It is perfect, anyone can play it, it does not require anything extra. The video quality of MPEG is better than any WMV or quicktime I have seen. And it does not require any downloads or special programs to play.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
yes, but if they used subscription to RSS feeds to automatically deliver new videos from a particular author and auto-syncing with a portable video player then it WOULD be "video-podcasting" or whatever the new term would be.
there are so many people bitching about the term "podcasting". I'm sure it must just be hatred/envy towards Apple because I don't remember any of you guys slagging off "email" as just being mail on the internet and nothing more so whys teh new name oh noes!!!11
Flash has it's own native video format now(flv), which is useful for developers seeking a cross-platform audience (since the Flash plug-in has a wider installed base than any of various video players out there...except perhaps Windows Media...and makes it possible for developers to integrate the video into the page however they like)
The Flash video format is not too bad if you pony up for Sorenson Squeeze...otherwise, it sucks.
I didn't test the url, but my guess is that it what they are using, if the site is Flash based.
There are other sites doing this, though with different audiences, formats, etc.
Vidiac.com
PutFile.com
In my experience, the quality of the videos posted are often quite poor. The owners of the sites battle copyright issues constantly and risk being held responsible if their users post material illegally. Finally, the range of the audience affects the overall quality of the site. Videos that a 12-year-old finds funny may not be worth my time.
Not all the criticisms apply to this particular site or to all uses of the site, but it's there.