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.
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That is kind of cool thing. Maybe I should test is with my blog.
Dean from Chinswing here. Just a quick comment to address a couple of points raised. We will have widgets available, to enable Chinswing functionality on users’ sites, blogs, etc. There will also be a “lurker” commenting facility - text commenting for those not taking part in an audio discussion. The coming “groups” functionality will be a welcome feature to many also… Anyway, these things aren’t there as of today, so the article comments still stand I guess
I’ll get back to making them a reality.
Cheers…
This is the debut of * BLOG 2.0 *
it doesn’t work for me; i think its overloaded or something; the video didn’t work and no ones photograph showed up.
Flixn has been freely providing the video tools necessary to quickly and easily build a site such as this for months.
That’s really cool, i want to be able to embed it into my blog. The NYU plugin looks interesting, will have to try it out. I also found a plugin to upload video to my wordpress blog here wordpress http://blog.vidavee.com/?page_id=7
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.
Didn’t work for me either. Running firefox on a mac (with latest version of flash) and none of the videos or thumbnail preview images would load. Very interesting concept, but the execution needs a lot more polish if they want to win users from GooTube. I’m sure they’re working on it though - so good luck.
Huh. Every time I real about vlogging, vlipping, v-whatever, I feel totally recidivistic - however cool it may be, I just don’t see myself taking the time to parse of participate in a video conversation. For me, that’s the beauty of the pre-dominantly text internet - its much, much faster to sponge stories, comments, etc. than w/ face-to-face interaction - which is what services like vlip are recreating online.
That being said, I don’t think I’m representative of vlip’s target audience - having just turned 30, I think I’m experiencing a generation gap with the myspace crowd.
http://slantt.net/news/techcru.....or-dummies
Dead before it launched imo.
Thanks for everyone’s comments — yes, we are exceeding capacity issues this morning, and that is why some of you have been unable to use vlip yet. I address this via vlip at http://digitalmediaupdate.blogspot.com/ — just click on the “play” button of the vlip player. And, keep your feedback coming, as it is appreciated.
@ 9
The “beauty of the text based internet” is in the fact that most people can use it (the internet) at work without their supervisor catching them. The moment sound is introduced, many of the work-surfer population is excluded from participating. Sites with sound and video that are quick (like YouTube clips) can be forwarded from work to a home email and enjoyed later in a few moments.
I am in agreement with you that getting people to participate in video interactions is going to be difficult. One reason so many people participate on the internet via email or social networks or blogs or whatever is because there is a built in degree of anonymity built in.
How is this different from Vobbo which has been around for a couple of years?
Wow, I haven’t seen an all flash front page in a while. They are bringing it back like it’s 2000 again.
The for Dummies book series have been very successful, so I don’t see why VLIP can’t be successful.
VLOGGING FOR DUMMIES.
I like the sound of that
I must be ADD, because every time I ever picked up a “for dummies” book I ended up making a book end out of it. Hey, maybe that means I am smart! As far as video goes, I will need the CEO to explain it to me.
Someone should have the Video Professor show us how to VLOG! I like Colin’s remarks, and can only imagine trying to Vlog with my kids screaming in the background, but then that would probably be a riot too.
Wow.
Dean from Chinswing, I am looking forward to using your technology for my website. I would like to create a whole seperate section on my website that uses the Chinswing technology.
Thanks
welcome to the vlogosphere!
The interface lacks sophistication and functionality. I would be shocked if an experienced designer created this.
Unless a person is at least the slightest bit entertaining, Vlogging stinks. I dont want to look at some weirdo sitting at home/work talking into a webcam about their lame day or skill or opinion.
If you arent as entertaining as Ze Frank, then you stink and nobody wants to hear/see you.
I could be wrong though, its happened once or twice before.
I keep wanting to buy a digital video camera so I can begin doing some videos…But I just don’t want to spend the cash.
There is a wypo (web typo) on this page:
“NYU has a plugin for Wodpress.” should prolly read “WordPress” right?
Video blogs have been a failure, as I noted in a couple of AlwaysOn Network columns. Videos are one thing; automatically downloading video blogs (or video podcasts; I prefer “video podcasts”) is too bandwidth intensive, too slow, takes up too much hard disk space.
You want to leave your computer on all night to download video podcasts? Well, good for you … but you’re in the minority. How many video podcasts have been successful? Do any have over 10,000 subscribers to their feed?
Compare and contrast with “standard” blogs — such as this one. Matter of fact, are there any video podcasts that have even 1% of the subscribers that TechCrunch has? None that I’m aware of, and in my public blogroll I subscribe to a lot (http://www.bloglines.com/public/DSL).
Mind you, this might be a decent idea, but until bandwidth, hard disk space and all sorts of other limitations are overcome (like the need for better and easier production techniques), it will remain a novelty for the SXSW crowd (and they’re not early adopters, they’re “way-too-early adopters”; in the 70’s they would have been touting the wonders of AI).
BTW, I still subscribe to several video podcasts for my iPod. But I suspect that I’m in the minority; I know very few people outside of the Bay area who subscribe to more than a few (if any) — and I don’t know anyone in China (where I currently live) who subscribes to any … not even one. YouTube, thumbs up; video blogs & video podcasts, thumbs down (too early).
Remember, so-called and self-anointed pioneers usually wind up with arrows in their back. Besides, how many people really have good “TV”/video presence? Not a lot. Good podcasters are a subset of good bloggers, but good vloggers are a subset of good podcasters: That’s a tiny set!!
Ask A Ninja gets 150,000 to 200,000 subscribers through it’s iTunes feed and an additional 150,000 - 200,000 from it’s flash player.