So the deal that seemed fated to so many never actually happened: Yahoo! and Microsoft remain separate companies, competitors rather than allies. As I've noted before, I think this is best from the user's perspective. I have a feeling it might be best for the two companies as well; true, there was a chance that the combined entity could pose a serious challenge to Google, but I felt there was also a chance that it could prove the downfall of Microsoft if they mismanaged their newly acquired properties. Personally, I never quite subscribed to the theory that the combination of Yahoo! and Microsoft automatically creates a major Google competitor -- it really would just create a larger competitor to Google in the short run for sure. People unhappy with the ensuing changes caused by the combination could have very well ended up migrating to Google, making Google actually a little bigger than it was prior to the deal. In Microsoft's defense, I will say that they surely viewed the acquisition as just one part of a long-term Internet strategy that would involve much more.
It didn't happen, though. All those bloggers who were so sure a deal would take place were wrong. Many financial analysts were wrong. I realize that I was also pretty wrong to take what those people were saying so seriously. Even though I'm not an expert on business acquisitions, I'm going to take any prediction of an impending deal with a grain of salt from now on. Sometimes, the experts can't really use their knowledge to make good predictions because a particular situation is unusual. Few seemed to consider how much Yahoo! did not want to be acquired and also that there would be some resistance to the deal within Microsoft as well. Understandably, I'm feeling quite skeptical now that the common expectation has become that Microsoft will launch another bid later this year after Yahoo's stock price has declined. This time, I'll believe it when it happens and not a moment before.
08 May 2008
YouTube's Partner Program has adopted a closed model.
One of the things I admire about Google AdSense is that it is simultaneously one of the world's most open advertising networks and one of its most successful. This "open" model for advertising online has always made sense to me -- why wouldn't you want your ads to be seen by the largest number of people possible? -- but few networks can provide the considerable administrative and enforcement manpower needed to ensure that advertising will continue to work for both publisher and advertiser. AdSense and AdWords aren't perfect, but they do still work for a lot of people, including me.
Google decided to follow a very different route to sharing revenue with the video publishers of YouTube. The YouTube Partner Program requires prospective earners to meet three criteria before they can join and start making money with their videos: publishers need to put out "original videos suitable for online streaming," they must have the legal right to upload whatever they are uploading, and their videos must be popular. The last point is what this post is about, though the first two help explain why the third exists. If you are a budding video publisher, you probably would rather not do as YouTube is forcing you to do. Why would you want to put out a bunch of videos, wait to become popular, and only then start monetizing your work? Given the sudden (and often brief) explosions of popularity that online videos are prone to, waiting to be accepted into the program means losing revenue. You might well wonder, then, why YouTube won't just accept anyone who doesn't violate the terms of service into the partner program. Why can't it be easy like AdSense?
The first two criteria for joining the partner program are essentially warning those who upload copyrighted content that they need not apply. Nonetheless, copyrighted content remains a big draw for YouTube; plenty of people upload it, and many more people view it. It is probably true that most video publishers who regularly put out original content that get a lot of views are going to be less interested in getting booted off YouTube and losing out on future revenues on their videos just so they can get some quick views by uploading copyrighted content. If your only video is thirty seconds of your baby sleeping, you might just be a little more tempted to try to make some quick bucks using someone else's work. Additionally, the fewer people that apply to the YouTube Partner Program the less the stress placed on the staff that must review the applications. Thus, YouTube has strong organizational and legal motivations for experimenting with a closed revenue sharing model.
In the long run, I do hope the YouTube Partner Program opens up to everyone. It shouldn't be harder than AdSense -- video content shouldn't be discriminated against just because video copyright issues are more of a hot button issue than web site copyright issues. As of now, this isn't a big deal because YouTube is such a force in the web video world; it has the audience already, so publishers come to it in droves. Still, some publishers will be tempted to monetize their videos in other ways and at other venues instead of trying to first prove themselves to YouTube in order to be allowed to make money. An easy way to monetize creative work encourages creativity, but barriers to entry, even minor ones, tend to dissuade it.
It's interesting that so many people still use free hosting for their original videos even when their videos are the main content of their sites -- bandwidth concerns seem to have created this situation which has put the hosts in a position to dictate the rules to the publishers. There is, however, plenty of competition in the video sharing world despite YouTube's dominance. The YouTube Partner Program will have to compete with Revver and other sites that might offer publishers a better deal (and a smaller audience).
Google decided to follow a very different route to sharing revenue with the video publishers of YouTube. The YouTube Partner Program requires prospective earners to meet three criteria before they can join and start making money with their videos: publishers need to put out "original videos suitable for online streaming," they must have the legal right to upload whatever they are uploading, and their videos must be popular. The last point is what this post is about, though the first two help explain why the third exists. If you are a budding video publisher, you probably would rather not do as YouTube is forcing you to do. Why would you want to put out a bunch of videos, wait to become popular, and only then start monetizing your work? Given the sudden (and often brief) explosions of popularity that online videos are prone to, waiting to be accepted into the program means losing revenue. You might well wonder, then, why YouTube won't just accept anyone who doesn't violate the terms of service into the partner program. Why can't it be easy like AdSense?
The first two criteria for joining the partner program are essentially warning those who upload copyrighted content that they need not apply. Nonetheless, copyrighted content remains a big draw for YouTube; plenty of people upload it, and many more people view it. It is probably true that most video publishers who regularly put out original content that get a lot of views are going to be less interested in getting booted off YouTube and losing out on future revenues on their videos just so they can get some quick views by uploading copyrighted content. If your only video is thirty seconds of your baby sleeping, you might just be a little more tempted to try to make some quick bucks using someone else's work. Additionally, the fewer people that apply to the YouTube Partner Program the less the stress placed on the staff that must review the applications. Thus, YouTube has strong organizational and legal motivations for experimenting with a closed revenue sharing model.
In the long run, I do hope the YouTube Partner Program opens up to everyone. It shouldn't be harder than AdSense -- video content shouldn't be discriminated against just because video copyright issues are more of a hot button issue than web site copyright issues. As of now, this isn't a big deal because YouTube is such a force in the web video world; it has the audience already, so publishers come to it in droves. Still, some publishers will be tempted to monetize their videos in other ways and at other venues instead of trying to first prove themselves to YouTube in order to be allowed to make money. An easy way to monetize creative work encourages creativity, but barriers to entry, even minor ones, tend to dissuade it.
It's interesting that so many people still use free hosting for their original videos even when their videos are the main content of their sites -- bandwidth concerns seem to have created this situation which has put the hosts in a position to dictate the rules to the publishers. There is, however, plenty of competition in the video sharing world despite YouTube's dominance. The YouTube Partner Program will have to compete with Revver and other sites that might offer publishers a better deal (and a smaller audience).
01 May 2008
On Web 2.0, there are hundreds of ways to bookmark.
Just about everyone who uses the Web has at least a few URLs they need to save or need to be able to access quickly -- it's a very basic need, and has been since the very beginning of the WWW. Indeed, bookmarking has been a feature offered within the browser for a very long time. For just as long, however, people have been saving URLs in notebooks, in documents, and in link collections on the Web. Social bookmarking and other online bookmarking solutions have grown at a rapid pace over the past few years, but nonetheless many people still use their browser's bookmarking utility whenever they want to save something or go to a favorite destination on the Web. What is the future of bookmarking, then? Will there continue to be many online bookmarking sites? Will old-fashioned methods of bookmarking still continue to find widespread use?
I don't think browser-based bookmarking is in any danger. (I'm afraid my term "browser-based bookmarking" might be confusing -- the idea is that the bookmarks are stored on the local computer or local home/work network rather than on the external Internet.) It doesn't go without saying that a person would want to share his or her bookmarks with the general public, so social bookmarking isn't something that will appeal to everyone. Indeed, I doubt it is very wise to let everyone on the Internet know who you bank with and have credit cards with, so some bookmarks really are better kept private. You can still keep your bookmarks accessible only to you while still using web-based services, but it is more intuitive to store private data locally. Saving copies of your local bookmarks collection is also simple and straightforward. Additionally, browser-based bookmarking has the advantage of widespread acceptance; people whose bookmarking needs are already met inside the browser may not want to learn new interfaces and use new features even if they are really cool. I expect the browsers will continue to add features to their own bookmarking utilities to keep up with the online innovators as well.
Clutter-averse individuals may particularly try to avoid online bookmarking because of the browser add-ons/toolbars that bookmarking sites tend to encourage their users to download, though often the download is optional. The biggest advantage of online bookmarks, however, cannot be matched on the browser side of things: only online bookmarking can free bookmarks from a particular computer or particular home/work network. Still, plenty of people only surf the Internet at home or work on the same computers every day; what might be vital for the traveler and the college student isn't so necessary for others.
With that said, I am sure that online bookmarking is here to stay and I expect there will continue to be many competitors in this space who will do all sorts of cool things. People like me already use multiple online bookmarking sites as well as browser-based bookmarking -- yeah, bookmark junkies do indeed exist -- and I think that could very well become much more common in the future. I use all my bookmark collections a little differently. My Firefox bookmarks are a dozen or so sites that I use often and extensively; quick access is the name of the game. My Opera bookmarks contain more categorized links than many web directories; I've been building it up since I was a teenager. Indeed, I've even considered using it as a basis for a web directory more than once, but laziness has prevented me from acting on this impulse. It would make a great directory, though...nothing but quality links to very informative sites. On the other hand, the two bookmark collections I maintain on Yahoo! services would make pathetic web directories. On del.icio.us, I primarily bookmark individual blog posts and other "standalone" web content. Appropriately tagged, I can find this miscellaneous material anytime I want via the search utility; a lot of it I may never actually look at again, but that doesn't matter. In fact, I don't think I've ever gone through and purged my del.icio.us bookmarks of dead links -- if I realize something no longer exists then of course I'll remove it, but I never specifically set out to preen my bookmarks there. I do preen my local bookmark collections semi-regularly. Finally, I use Yahoo! Bookmarks to save interesting URLs I find on the Web so that I can figure out what to do with them later. Some bookmarks will be incorporated into a browser-based collection while others will end up on del.icio.us; most of them, though, will probably be looked at more closely and then discarded. So Yahoo! Bookmarks isn't a permanent collection of bookmarks for me; it's sort of the Ellis Island of my bookmarking world. I doubt that my way of doing things is the most efficient nor do I think I get the most out of any of the bookmarking methods I utilize, but I'm nonetheless quite satisfied with my present arrangement. I can't wait to think of new methods of organizing my bookmarks in even more places.
If anything, I suspect this post has shown that bookmarking can be a pretty complicated thing. The beauty is that the tools that are out there for allow us bookmarkers to bookmark how ever we want. You don't need to make it complicated if you don't want it to be; it's all up to you. Want to signup with a bookmarking service just so you can stash away your links to your favorite web games? You can do it while simultaneously keeping all of your serious links on another service or in your browser. Freedom is wonderful.
I don't think browser-based bookmarking is in any danger. (I'm afraid my term "browser-based bookmarking" might be confusing -- the idea is that the bookmarks are stored on the local computer or local home/work network rather than on the external Internet.) It doesn't go without saying that a person would want to share his or her bookmarks with the general public, so social bookmarking isn't something that will appeal to everyone. Indeed, I doubt it is very wise to let everyone on the Internet know who you bank with and have credit cards with, so some bookmarks really are better kept private. You can still keep your bookmarks accessible only to you while still using web-based services, but it is more intuitive to store private data locally. Saving copies of your local bookmarks collection is also simple and straightforward. Additionally, browser-based bookmarking has the advantage of widespread acceptance; people whose bookmarking needs are already met inside the browser may not want to learn new interfaces and use new features even if they are really cool. I expect the browsers will continue to add features to their own bookmarking utilities to keep up with the online innovators as well.
Clutter-averse individuals may particularly try to avoid online bookmarking because of the browser add-ons/toolbars that bookmarking sites tend to encourage their users to download, though often the download is optional. The biggest advantage of online bookmarks, however, cannot be matched on the browser side of things: only online bookmarking can free bookmarks from a particular computer or particular home/work network. Still, plenty of people only surf the Internet at home or work on the same computers every day; what might be vital for the traveler and the college student isn't so necessary for others.
With that said, I am sure that online bookmarking is here to stay and I expect there will continue to be many competitors in this space who will do all sorts of cool things. People like me already use multiple online bookmarking sites as well as browser-based bookmarking -- yeah, bookmark junkies do indeed exist -- and I think that could very well become much more common in the future. I use all my bookmark collections a little differently. My Firefox bookmarks are a dozen or so sites that I use often and extensively; quick access is the name of the game. My Opera bookmarks contain more categorized links than many web directories; I've been building it up since I was a teenager. Indeed, I've even considered using it as a basis for a web directory more than once, but laziness has prevented me from acting on this impulse. It would make a great directory, though...nothing but quality links to very informative sites. On the other hand, the two bookmark collections I maintain on Yahoo! services would make pathetic web directories. On del.icio.us, I primarily bookmark individual blog posts and other "standalone" web content. Appropriately tagged, I can find this miscellaneous material anytime I want via the search utility; a lot of it I may never actually look at again, but that doesn't matter. In fact, I don't think I've ever gone through and purged my del.icio.us bookmarks of dead links -- if I realize something no longer exists then of course I'll remove it, but I never specifically set out to preen my bookmarks there. I do preen my local bookmark collections semi-regularly. Finally, I use Yahoo! Bookmarks to save interesting URLs I find on the Web so that I can figure out what to do with them later. Some bookmarks will be incorporated into a browser-based collection while others will end up on del.icio.us; most of them, though, will probably be looked at more closely and then discarded. So Yahoo! Bookmarks isn't a permanent collection of bookmarks for me; it's sort of the Ellis Island of my bookmarking world. I doubt that my way of doing things is the most efficient nor do I think I get the most out of any of the bookmarking methods I utilize, but I'm nonetheless quite satisfied with my present arrangement. I can't wait to think of new methods of organizing my bookmarks in even more places.
If anything, I suspect this post has shown that bookmarking can be a pretty complicated thing. The beauty is that the tools that are out there for allow us bookmarkers to bookmark how ever we want. You don't need to make it complicated if you don't want it to be; it's all up to you. Want to signup with a bookmarking service just so you can stash away your links to your favorite web games? You can do it while simultaneously keeping all of your serious links on another service or in your browser. Freedom is wonderful.
28 April 2008
In the age of AdBlock and NoScript, AdSense may have an advantage.
I think the only people who really like advertising are people who make money from advertising. Sure, ad watchers can get information or even entertainment from a well designed ad, but for the most part it is an interruption that disrupts an experience. A lot of people would like to see advertising done away with completely. People like that who surf the Web are increasingly using tools like the Firefox add-ons AdBlock and NoScript to block ads from their view. As someone who likes advertising primarily because he makes money from advertising, I am more than a little concerned over what will happen as more and more people start blocking ads on the Web. Will the numbers of ad blocking individuals be sufficient to shake up the Internet advertising world?
I fully expect there to be many more ad blockers in the future, targeted towards surfers on all platforms and of all nationalities. There will even be an "arms race" of sorts between advertisers and ad blockers, with each group trying to outwit the other. The question I'm not sure of the answer is how motivated the average surfer will be to block ads even when the tools to do so are readily available. We have to keep in mind that people on the Internet vary widely in their level of experience using computers and the Internet. For some, using a browser other than Internet Explorer is still a radical idea. Some don't install new programs knowingly at all, end of story. So there will always be an audience available to view ads on the Web, and its size won't be small. People also vary in their level of distaste for advertising as well; those who recognize that advertising actually motivates the creation of Web content and services may well tolerate it as a "necessary evil." Still, I think the outright majority of Web surfers are going to be open to the idea of blocking ads. It's not only those who find advertising annoying who will turn to ad blocking. For some, safety factors will be paramount -- NoScript, for instance, can block a lot of ads, but I think its most important use is to prevent malicious code from being executed. Since ads themselves can be vectors for transmitting malware, people concerned with surfing the Web securely are among the most likely groups of people to block ads.
Given that ads can be a security risk and that many are only useful to small groups of people, there are millions of surfers who would not feel a twinge of regret over blocking all ads from their lives permanently. After all, what have ad companies like Casale Media and Tribal Fusion done for THEM? Google AdSense is somewhat different, however, and it is primarily because of the size and variety of its publisher base. An Adsense publisher could be someone who just started a blog on Blogger one day for fun. In all likelihood, this publisher will never reach payout -- he may never even get a single regular reader. Nonetheless, he has published on the Web and had the experiences of signing up for AdSense, getting approved to run ads, and setting up the actual ads on the blog. This is a person who will look on AdSense a little differently compared to how he looks on every other ad company. If he ever decides to start blocking ads, he's going to be more reluctant to block AdSense ads than those from other companies -- after all, he's an AdSense publisher himself! AdSense's open policy is not embraced by all; plenty of advertisers, for instance, want no part of Google's "content network," preferring instead to advertise alongside search results only. I also strongly suspect that small-time publishers are more likely to resort to click fraud and commit other violations of AdSense guidelines than their more successful cohorts. Still, I think that the relationships AdSense has formed with millions of people could really pay off if there is an ad blocking related shakeup in the Internet advertising world.
Indeed, I would advise any ad network to at least consider starting a free blog or web hosting service in which the only ads permitted would be served by that particular ad network, with revenue shared with the web publisher. Such a move creates good will and increases the network's reach at the same time. It could even give those ad networks a little bit of an edge in the (perhaps) difficult times that loom ahead.
I fully expect there to be many more ad blockers in the future, targeted towards surfers on all platforms and of all nationalities. There will even be an "arms race" of sorts between advertisers and ad blockers, with each group trying to outwit the other. The question I'm not sure of the answer is how motivated the average surfer will be to block ads even when the tools to do so are readily available. We have to keep in mind that people on the Internet vary widely in their level of experience using computers and the Internet. For some, using a browser other than Internet Explorer is still a radical idea. Some don't install new programs knowingly at all, end of story. So there will always be an audience available to view ads on the Web, and its size won't be small. People also vary in their level of distaste for advertising as well; those who recognize that advertising actually motivates the creation of Web content and services may well tolerate it as a "necessary evil." Still, I think the outright majority of Web surfers are going to be open to the idea of blocking ads. It's not only those who find advertising annoying who will turn to ad blocking. For some, safety factors will be paramount -- NoScript, for instance, can block a lot of ads, but I think its most important use is to prevent malicious code from being executed. Since ads themselves can be vectors for transmitting malware, people concerned with surfing the Web securely are among the most likely groups of people to block ads.
Given that ads can be a security risk and that many are only useful to small groups of people, there are millions of surfers who would not feel a twinge of regret over blocking all ads from their lives permanently. After all, what have ad companies like Casale Media and Tribal Fusion done for THEM? Google AdSense is somewhat different, however, and it is primarily because of the size and variety of its publisher base. An Adsense publisher could be someone who just started a blog on Blogger one day for fun. In all likelihood, this publisher will never reach payout -- he may never even get a single regular reader. Nonetheless, he has published on the Web and had the experiences of signing up for AdSense, getting approved to run ads, and setting up the actual ads on the blog. This is a person who will look on AdSense a little differently compared to how he looks on every other ad company. If he ever decides to start blocking ads, he's going to be more reluctant to block AdSense ads than those from other companies -- after all, he's an AdSense publisher himself! AdSense's open policy is not embraced by all; plenty of advertisers, for instance, want no part of Google's "content network," preferring instead to advertise alongside search results only. I also strongly suspect that small-time publishers are more likely to resort to click fraud and commit other violations of AdSense guidelines than their more successful cohorts. Still, I think that the relationships AdSense has formed with millions of people could really pay off if there is an ad blocking related shakeup in the Internet advertising world.
Indeed, I would advise any ad network to at least consider starting a free blog or web hosting service in which the only ads permitted would be served by that particular ad network, with revenue shared with the web publisher. Such a move creates good will and increases the network's reach at the same time. It could even give those ad networks a little bit of an edge in the (perhaps) difficult times that loom ahead.
25 April 2008
I feel a little weird using Yahoo! now.
Most people seem to think a Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo! is essentially inevitable. Not even Yahoo!'s recent positive revenue report has changed many minds. It's always a dangerous thing to trust Internet "experts," but I have no reason to distrust the many voices that are forecasting a merger between these two mammoth companies. I, too, expect the acquisition to happen, but Yahoo!'s energetic fight for its life has at least kept the possibility of another end of this story possible. During this waiting period, life has gone on at both Yahoo! and Microsoft even though both companies' futures are up in the air at the moment. Both companies are busy unveiling new projects, improving old ones, and building new business relationships. For me, though, nothing has felt quite the same since Microsoft's bid was first announced.
Every time I visit the Yahoo! homepage or a Yahoo! service I find myself inevitably thinking, "Will this still be here after Yahoo! is bought by Microsoft?" For the most part, I think the answer to that question will prove to be yes, at least when it comes to popular Yahoo! services. I can't help but wonder how things will change, however...that things will change dramatically I know. Even if a particular service isn't axed outright, it might be neglected and eventually fade away into oblivion, or be dropped suddenly when it becomes apparent it doesn't fit well into the new owner's plans. What if a service that will be axed or will be neglected and left to die happens to be one I really like? This whole thing really sucks for the userbase. Yahoo! already feels dead to me -- I find myself using Yahoo! services less and less, all because I don't feel like I can count on Yahoo! to be there for me in the future. It's almost as if Yahoo! announced it was going out of business and would no longer be around...that's how I feel. I know that Yahoo! IS going to be around in some form even after this weekend's busy negotiations, but I just don't know if it'll be anything like the Yahoo! I used to use. I don't think I'll be able to shake this feeling off until the deal is either done or taken off the table. Will I be able to survive a hostile takeover attempt by Microsoft?!
Every time I visit the Yahoo! homepage or a Yahoo! service I find myself inevitably thinking, "Will this still be here after Yahoo! is bought by Microsoft?" For the most part, I think the answer to that question will prove to be yes, at least when it comes to popular Yahoo! services. I can't help but wonder how things will change, however...that things will change dramatically I know. Even if a particular service isn't axed outright, it might be neglected and eventually fade away into oblivion, or be dropped suddenly when it becomes apparent it doesn't fit well into the new owner's plans. What if a service that will be axed or will be neglected and left to die happens to be one I really like? This whole thing really sucks for the userbase. Yahoo! already feels dead to me -- I find myself using Yahoo! services less and less, all because I don't feel like I can count on Yahoo! to be there for me in the future. It's almost as if Yahoo! announced it was going out of business and would no longer be around...that's how I feel. I know that Yahoo! IS going to be around in some form even after this weekend's busy negotiations, but I just don't know if it'll be anything like the Yahoo! I used to use. I don't think I'll be able to shake this feeling off until the deal is either done or taken off the table. Will I be able to survive a hostile takeover attempt by Microsoft?!
Hulu is a serious competitor to In2TV.
Despite the buzz that surrounded the launch of Hulu, I really didn't expect the site to quickly become one of my favorites. I welcomed its arrival; one can never have too many high quality video sites, after all. I was more or less expecting a site that would regurgitate a lot of content already found on its partners' sites, however, rather than a site that offered an amazing mix of old and new television content, movies, and classic sports. I wasn't prepared for the awesomeness of Hulu. It blew me away.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Lost in Space, The A-Team, classic NBA games...wow. I can burn some serious time on that site, and I have. It's not like Hulu is the only site offering television content on the Web, though. AOL's In2TV is a similar site that I've written about in the past. I remain a fan of it, and to have both In2TV and Hulu and all the other video sites online right now makes this an awesome time for video mavens. We can think of Hulu and In2TV as being equivalent to TV channels for the Web. Your particular web channel lineup might include Joost, YouTube, and/or any number of other video sites, but regardless of the particular bunch of sites you use it is becoming increasingly clear that the high speed Internet user is soon going to be able to legally access more video content online than he/she can through TV. It's no wonder that many people are shifting away from cable and satellite TV given the richness of available online content; I don't see myself taking THAT step as long as I can afford cable TV, but getting off the cable/satellite grid is now a viable choice even for people who don't like to be bored.
As loyal as I feel to In2TV, I must nonetheless acknowledge that Hulu has leapfrogged ahead of the older site. Simply put, Hulu just works. It's offering a seamless video watching experience that replicates the television watching experience. High quality video, high quality content, high quality performance. In2TV just works most of the time, too, but the rest of the time it doesn't. The last problem I had with In2TV is that my videos would skip ahead after a commercial break, forcing me to miss a big chunk of whatever I was watching -- that's not exactly the best way to endear me to the advertisers! I'm also none too sure of how dedicated AOL is: for some reason, an episode of Babylon 5 ("Signs and Portents") on the English version of the site is in Spanish, and has remained in Spanish despite user complaints. It's one thing to build a great site, but it can only remain a great site if it is maintained. I unfortunately get the feeling that In2TV is on auto-pilot at the moment. Hulu might follow the same path eventually, but, for the moment, it has In2TV beat. Since they don't offer the same content, though, it makes sense to use both depending on what you want to watch. In this case, competition is awesome for the end user.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Lost in Space, The A-Team, classic NBA games...wow. I can burn some serious time on that site, and I have. It's not like Hulu is the only site offering television content on the Web, though. AOL's In2TV is a similar site that I've written about in the past. I remain a fan of it, and to have both In2TV and Hulu and all the other video sites online right now makes this an awesome time for video mavens. We can think of Hulu and In2TV as being equivalent to TV channels for the Web. Your particular web channel lineup might include Joost, YouTube, and/or any number of other video sites, but regardless of the particular bunch of sites you use it is becoming increasingly clear that the high speed Internet user is soon going to be able to legally access more video content online than he/she can through TV. It's no wonder that many people are shifting away from cable and satellite TV given the richness of available online content; I don't see myself taking THAT step as long as I can afford cable TV, but getting off the cable/satellite grid is now a viable choice even for people who don't like to be bored.
As loyal as I feel to In2TV, I must nonetheless acknowledge that Hulu has leapfrogged ahead of the older site. Simply put, Hulu just works. It's offering a seamless video watching experience that replicates the television watching experience. High quality video, high quality content, high quality performance. In2TV just works most of the time, too, but the rest of the time it doesn't. The last problem I had with In2TV is that my videos would skip ahead after a commercial break, forcing me to miss a big chunk of whatever I was watching -- that's not exactly the best way to endear me to the advertisers! I'm also none too sure of how dedicated AOL is: for some reason, an episode of Babylon 5 ("Signs and Portents") on the English version of the site is in Spanish, and has remained in Spanish despite user complaints. It's one thing to build a great site, but it can only remain a great site if it is maintained. I unfortunately get the feeling that In2TV is on auto-pilot at the moment. Hulu might follow the same path eventually, but, for the moment, it has In2TV beat. Since they don't offer the same content, though, it makes sense to use both depending on what you want to watch. In this case, competition is awesome for the end user.
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