Video conferencing company Sightspeed is hopping on the web 2.0 train with the launch of a new video blogging site, Vlip. Vlip lets users post webcam video commentary to the Vlip site along with a thread of video replies. It’s taken the post and reply vlogging from YouTube and placed it front and center with a few enhancements. Vlips, like YouTube videos can be embedded in sites, but also let users make and view replies to the thread. In a good move, Vlip makes it ridiculously easy to reply to a Vlip even if you’re not a member and even connect live to Vlippers that are also SightSpeed members. On the main site the Vlips can be searched by rating, date, and views. Check out the widget below.
We’ve seen some other non-YouTube video comment threads before. NYU has a plugin for WordPress. Flikzor also has a video comment widget embeddable on any page. Vlip wants to be a destination for all of these conversations, which reminds me a lot of Chinswing. Chinswing is also a destination site, but for audio. Like Chingswing, Vlip unfortunately leaves the keyboard-only crowd out of the commentary, a big “no no” in my mind. For Vlip to succeed against YouTube and Flikzor, they have to nail the interface. The front page lacks the quick top video list or director channels that worked so well on YouTube. If they get that right, Vlip’s combination of passive and active video chat could really catch on.
http://www.vlip.com/beta/VLIP_Embeded.swf?thread=264&url=http://www.vlip.com/