Oh, you forgot to mention how YouTube allows uploads of any length under 100mb using YouTube Director. That’s a strong difference.

Mike, I don’t know if you were making this point specifically, but the fact is that most innovative new companies can have their functionality and business model replicated verbatim in a matter of months.

Ironically it’s the big size of these companies that typically keeps them from getting that done. Their management gets in the way of their productivity.

I sometimes wonder how these companies turn a simple single piece of functionality into an entire company and get $5m in funding to go with it. Does every kid at Stanford who completes his senior project get a VC investment with his diploma? (I went to Ohio State - we get $20 and discount tickets to Buckeye games)

Ah, this is easy for them to do, so certainly worth a try. It’s nice to see a tie-in with AIM too (and hopefully this will be emphasized more in future). Oh, and they really need to roll this out on its own domain, with simple widgets for MySpace, AIMpages etc.

As Wil said, innovation in a big company is difficult due to the extra layers of management.

But the big guys have the advantage of a built-in audience, which means the smaller innovators need to secure market share quickly, a la YouTube and MySpace.

Those two are so entrenched at this point it’s hard to envision AOL overtaking them. However, other innovative companies need to be aware that the big guys will always copy what they do if it is successful. Not to mention that in most cases, there are multiple other small companies working on the same type of project.

What a perfect example screenshot. Announcements of new video services are about as exciting as “Lucas making an ICEEE” sounds. Lucas looks like he’d agree.

“I sometimes wonder how these companies turn a simple single piece of functionality into an entire company and get $5m in funding to go with it.”

I wonder about this too. Week after week we hear about yet another online calendar or Ajax portal getting millions in first-round funding. Are there people in the VC business who were not around in 2001?

hmm.. their ‘beta’ graphic looks _exactly_ like iTune’s ‘Just for You’ beta graphic. Take a look

http://itorrey.com/index.php?itemid=58

Looks like the Startups have now transformed to “Sandboxes” for alll these big guys including G.Y.M.

All they have to do is peek into the sandboxes, follow which ones look interesting and are creating a buzz..and instead of shelling out a few mil in acquiring them..just start one on their own

Regards,
Startups.in

Flash8 on Youtube ? Isn’t it for directors only ?

Youtube doesn’t use Flash 8.

Good job, too - if it did, there wouldn’t be a single *nix user anywhere able to watch anything.

It may be just me, but that thing looks quite identical to YouTube. Kinda interesting how AOL is rolling out all these new services all at once, but I doubt that anyone will actually use them in the long run. I checked out AIMPages and it seemed to be more like spam then a site for networking. Also, there are so many YouTube clones that this is kind of overkill in that area of the market. It’s quite obvious that YouTube’s challengers haven’t overtaken it, and I doubt AOL will either. On the topic of AIMPages, it may be just me but I’m way too lazy to “add modules” to a page. Especially modules which link to better services overall (Facebook/MySpace/etc). It basically makes AIMPages as useful as my bookmarks bar.

its really weak of AOL to do this. the page is almost identical to a YouTube page. doesn’t AOL have its own web designers? AOL = lamers.

It’s a real clone!! Is AOL a chinese company?!?!

What do you bet Jason Calacanis will be a huge fan of this site? He has weekly rants against YouTube for letting people post videos without a lawyer viewing them first. Also hates Flash video (which is awesome for Mac users like me) and all the other stuff that AOL has copied from YouTube. Hopefully it’s more impressive than the AIM Pages launch.

youtube is dead. burning a mill a month without a buyout. big corps are creating their own video services (why not? how much can it cost? 10 mill max). in 1 year, youtube will be done ala friendster….unless VCs pump more money into it to keep it afloat…hoping for a buyout.

aol is so boring…

Unrelated: have you seen that Flickr has gone to “Gamma” now?

“unproven concepts” = risk, there dont seem to be many risk takers in large level companies, thus the me2 approach once proven with startups.

I heard from a very reliable source that AOL awarded the bid for this project to “Eboyz666″ on Elance for $584. He then subbed it out.

Ugli. Now, why don’t AOL acquire YouTube ?

Big companies do have layers of political/managerial junk that often prevent new and innovative ideas/products from coming through. But big companies have the business knowledge and structure to actually sell things properly, instead of hoping for a buyout. Big companies do things slower, but for a reason. It is true that in the Internet world, things come and go quickly. But if you want long term success for a product/service, you also have to attract a market beyond the Internet (i.e. the real world). Big companies have the cash and other resources to do this. And I agree they should use these resources to make something original, rather than just copy and paste.

I wonder what flavor Icee Lucas is making? I bet you its grape. Grape is the best flavor. Or cherry. Yeh, cherry.

I’m glad if I ever want to post a 5 minute video of something completely ridiculous, I have about 27 different websites where I can upload, share, tag, rate, create feeds, email and flambe it. Then I can create groups of other like-minded individuals who waste their time in 5 minute blocks. Yea for the Interwebnet!

Michael, could you please correct your youtube mistake on flash8 ?

why?

Youtube is definitely not Flash 8. Considering Macromedia still hasn’t released version 8 of the Flash plugin for Linux yet, I’m very glad Youtube doesn’t use it.

Also I can see the 5-minute limit from AOL as a big downside to using this service. I remember when Youtube recently decided to limit their videos to *20* minutes there was a huge amount of criticism (people used to upload upto an hour or so worth of video and now have to break it up).

Oh please, the only big company doing anything innovative is Microsoft with live.com?? What a crock

I called the Google guys and AOL folks. They want to personally apologize for not being more cutting edge and will from now on work on more hard core stuff just because Lord Michael of Clan Arrington wants to see it.

That one sentence is going to change the world. Kudos to you for being such a bold person!

UnCut Video “See it, Shoot it, Share it”

Sound like a gay porn featuring uncircumcised men.

Planters has a product called “Tube Nuts” and here is a link to a new toy from hasbor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdAIt4MgnHc

Not sure how some of this stuff gets by the decision-makers at big companies.

Yes, the big guys can easily copy most of the features and functionality of the majority of consumer tech start-ups out there today. One of the things they can’t copy in the case of YT vs. AOL, for example, is that YT is cool, AOL is not. Period.

yawn, if there’s any decent content on here, i’ll just get it with keepvid.

I’m pretty sure this is a very interesting move. There is lots more to watch now

Umm… MS’s Live concept is almost a complete rip off of OS X.
I am not a Mac User, but give credit where it is due.

This is pretty lame. I’m going to keep using YouTube. Live.com, Unproven concept… Yeah right… Protopage, Googe Hompage, My Yahoo, Netvibes, Anything sound familier? Tagging allows easy search and you can find kewl stuff through tags. Oh yeah, AIM Pages = LAME.

By the way, anyone can save youTube videos and most other online video hosting sites videos through KeepVid. It saves the file to an FLV.

This is a great move by AOL - but there is one ommission that is unforgivable - there is no OBVIOUS Search Option just for those VIDEOS

So if one wanted to search by TAGS or TITLE for a Subject - it would not be obvious to most users, if to any at all.

I’m surprised AOL is still around…they seem like their on the outs

Haha @ ben.

Yeah sorry AOL, you bore me!

Google Video has NO LIMITATIONS on file size or length.

Youtube is great! I don’t know why companies are focussing on services that are already provided. They should be thinking outside the box coming up with new ones that we are likely to use. How many youtube clones do we need? We already have myspace, aol, google, yahoo and others bringing out similarly featured video services..

I don’t like the 5-minute length cap. Traditional online service that it is, AOL is clearly paranoid about copyright.

I definitely don’t like the fact that UnCut’s embedded player autoplays. That’s an annoyance YouTube avoids. Anyone who embeds multiple videos on a single page using UnCut, is just asking discerning readers to go away.

That is a pretty serious beta badge on the uncut logo. AOL should have owned this space. They have the pipes, the content, and a youth oriented user base (AIM) for “citizen content”. However, they still have the gated community mentality. Gated communities on the net seem to be becoming more and more, irrelevant for many web users. AOL just doesn’t matter.

Ucut just seems corny. Seriously, who is writing this copy at AOL?

“Instantly be a video king (or queen) among your friends with easy uploads of your videos of:

· Local events, happenings or other cool things
· Grads, fads, or things that make you mad or glad
Become an instant movie mogul now!”

Maybe they have a trojan horse strategy to bring Web2.0 to the Senior Set? Any insider thoughts?

Arrington, what about http://www.metacafe.com ?? you didn’t mention them.

Youtube Doesn’t use Flash 8 , it’s a big mistake , you should correct it ..

I’ve used it for photos and videos and these guys do a good job. It’s simple to use and not too much confusion with tech jargon. Keep it simple and users will like it.

I wonder how AOL legal is going to handle all copyright issues..

Microsoft is one of the Major Corporations making moves in innovation, but not on it’s own accord. But because Apple has pushed it into a corner and has challenged its complexity.

Shawn-

I don’t know how you see OS X and Live.com similar. They are tottally two different applications. One is web based and one is platform. Are you smoking something?

This is beyond Active X And AJAX Capabilities that Apple hasn’t bothered with yet. They’ve been busy with their dual core intel chip powerbooks and Bootcamp setups.

Anon - please name another Big Corporation working with this technology and actually innovating stuff, besides Google. Yahoo doesn’t count, they copycat google in my opinon.

About AOLs new release. I don’t think it has the intention to destroy Youtube. I think it’s made to test the market before they invest in anything more advance. Thus the simplicity.

My biggest issue with the buggy UnCut is with the content release that an uploader must agree to:

While you retain ownership of all right, title, and interest in the Content itself, you agree that AOL owns all right, title, and interest in any compilation, collective work, or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating the Content.

Or how about the imdemnity language:

You hereby hold AOL harmless from and against any third-party claim arising from use of the Content. You waive any right to privacy.

Must be the same lawyers that advised their old record division on how to deal with the “Internet.”

Full Uncut revieiw including content release here:
http://wes2.wordpress.com/2006.....-reviewed/

Why does everyone accept the use of Flash on any of these sites? Flash is not a video format. Flash is a player for rich media applications. Flash makes the whole “shared video” concept a joke. Wait until the next Flash virus comes out (if you can program in Flash then you can program a virus — remember your Von Neumann)

If you’ve got a concern about a potential exploit, and a way to achieve it, then please let the Adobe security group know about it so we can address it, thanks:
http://www.adobe.com/support/security/alertus.html

(The ECMAScript-based ActionScript plays in a pretty strict sandbox — most of the potential exploits over the past ten years have been read-buffer overflows, and I can’t recall any “virus” per se. Always needs to be taken seriously, though.)

tx, jd/adobe

it seems to me that what we’re faced with is a bunch of oversized companies who are too big to really innovate so they’re just watching what smaller companies do and copying them or buying them. seems really lame to me.

even regarding yahoo’s new home page. netvibes was a year ahead of them…now they put out something with a little ajax in it and everyone is bugging out.

problem is, these companies have soooooooooooooo much cash compared to the smaller ones that they’re able to muscle their way around.

never any love for gofish.com eventhough they are on their 4th version of the same type of service.

That is because big companies are generally risk adverse, which is one of the reasons they either let smaller companies take the chance and screw things up by attempting to innovate OR just buy a company once they innovate and have gained market traction.