The best way to hear about new Microsoft product launches these days is to read their employees’ blogs. First we had Stuart Padley’s quickly deleted blog post with some additional information about the upcoming Microsoft Live Drive.
Tonight we hear that Soapbox, a YouTube-like user uploaded video product that we first heard about two weeks ago, may launch as soon as tomorrow. The news comes from Kurt Shintaku via his blog.
There are a few details. The beta signup page says users will “be able to upload your own videos, watch those made by other contributors, post comments on what you’ve seen, and much more.” Om Malik says, via a commenter, that “Soapbox autodetects your browser + platform and streams WM for IE/Windows users, but Flash for Firefox/Windows and Firefox+Safari on Mac.” LiveSide says videos up to 100 MB in size can be uploaded in AVI, ASF, WMV, MOV, MPEG 1/2/4, 3GPP, DV file formats.
Whatever they launch, it should be interesting. Deep integration with Live Spaces, a huge blogging platform, will in itself drive a lot of usage.
Update: The press release has just been put up on Microsoft. Very little new information. We are trying to get a beta account to do a full review.
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Five entries in a row! What a fast writer!
Well, I don’t know..will that be kind of a waste of storage? I am sure the same video clip will be uploaded to many video sharing websites. Duplication sux.
Looking forward to this one…ASP.NET…Resistance is futile!
Microsoft is a company that is ultra sensitive about copyright issues, as evidenced by the lawsuits it filed against, and received from, its competitors in the past.
If internally Microsoft’s execs and lawyers have decided that they can safely wade into the thick swamp of YouTube-land, then it is a sign that the user-created videos have officially gained legitimacy, and, above all, the economic value of amateur-created videos have gotten serious notice.
The reality is: if a 18-second video clip of a kitten falling asleep can generate millions of clicks, any accountant worth his salt will tell you that it cannot be ignored.
Nice,
I will use this service..
If true, it is unbelievable that a Microsoft product will work on IE, Firefox
and Safari, as well as deliver both WM and Flash Files!
Hey Mac diehards, what are your thoughts on that?
Some screenshot at betanews
http://www.betanews.com/slides.....pbox/136/4
I like the 100MB part. I’d give my vote to any reliable site that doesn’t place unfriendly restrictions on the video size.
nice additional , so big players are jumping in this thingi
I guess YouTube should have taken the $1bn last month
Question is can teh big guys get teh “look and feel” right to keep the groovers in situ…..for example my kids tell me MySpace is being eclipsed as the “place to be” - don’t know if thats a News Int’l thing or just the temporary nature of social network sites.
This is just great!
http://soapbox.msn.com/video.a.....315d0888da
YouTube still is the best!
Always late to the party. I agree, Youtube is so way ahead of everyone. Now with the Warner Music agreement I won’t worry about synch rights for some songs. I read in today’s WSJ that potentially other music companies will do the same soon (except for Universal). That way I won’t have to worry about obtaining synch rights for some songs I incorporate into my videos.
Also, pushing WMV, yuck. I prefer Flash. Uploads and streaming are much more efficient with Flash. Plus I can use isquint to upload those Flash files onto my iPod. With WMV, you’re out of luck.
I thought Microsoft was moving away from MSN to their new Windows Live products, and here they are releasing a new YouTube-like on MSN Video. It makes no sense to me. Microsoft needs to pick one thing and stick with it.
The more the merrier. When companies battle, consumers win.
I can only assume that MSFT will be screening every video that is posted. They have a much bigger liability regarding copyright infringement (since they actually have lots of $$$’s in cash as opposed to YouTube). I wonder how much of an operational overhead this screening will incur for MSFT.
This goes to show what a low barriers to entry user-generated services have. This is ultimately going to be a commodity feature everywhere.
I’m curious to see how long the YouTube brand will remain to be dominant.
I think Microsoft converting files to Flash video is much bigger news!!
Hmm.. so would you want to view the site in IE and then have to wait for your Media player plugin to load up connectetc, or use Firefox and get a nice instant on experience? Hmm
OK.. so WMP plugin will fullscreen of you dblclick the video - inlike Flash.
Though Divx’s Stage6 does that too with their plugin…
Dixv announced an IPO today