TiVo came along and is helping kill the idea of a TV time slot. The growth of on demand online video has been helping finish the job. Cozmo.Tv wants to create a TV 2.0 by changing the way you consume online video from a random walk to personalized content. Next week at Always On, they will officially announce the new embeddable video widget they’ve been working on for the past couple of months. The widget functions like an online TV, streaming channels of personalized video content based on the initial preferences set by the widget publisher and the preferences of the viewer.
Publishers seed their widget with the initial channels by adding explicit RSS feeds to video sites or keyword searches run on Cozmo’s video index. Basing channels off of feeds means that a widget can be set up and forgotten, adding content to its channels as new shows appear in the feed. At launch the indexed sites will include videos from YouTube and Blip.tv, but will expand to include Google Video, MySpace, Brightcove, and Break.com. Eventually publishers will also be able to seed their widget with relevant channels by having Cozmo analyze their personal blog or profile page (where most widgets will be installed). The one below is pulling CBS’s YouTube clips along with some others, including a channel of videos you’d find by searching YouTube for kittens.
On the viewers end, you can surf over channels or shows and rate them. When you’re signed in, Cozmo tracks how you rate shows and then will suggest the shows on that channel rated highly by other viewers similar to you in voting history and demographic.
Cozmo wants to eventually move beyond viral video sites after scaling up the service. They are logging 25,000 uniques to their site each month, but want the upcoming widget to be their main form of distribution. The widget is designed to be a self contained version of Cozmo’s entire offering, allowing users to sign up for accounts, rip the code for the current player, or create their own.
The hope is that after building up a network of these widget players, they’ll serve as a direct distribution parter for content creators. Creators and affiliates who distribute the content will get revenue shares of contextual banner and interstitial video ads served on the player.
Readers interested in customized online video channels should check out SplashCast’s RSS-based multimedia player, MeeVee’s personalized online video guide, Blinkx’s Blinkx It widget, and of course Joost.
Cozmo better let me order a bag of chips and have it delivered to my door via bike messenger within 5 minutes, else i don’t want it on my TV..
I love it.
Kickass picture quality.
This is a stupid idea. Unless they get full TV shows then there is no way this will replace my TV. Get a business model that makes sense.
I don’t see many new products which I really feel good about. This one is the exception.
Great concept,nicely put together. Good luck!
Ehhh….Not too keen on this idea.
Are we really running so low on Web 2.0 names that we have to recycle them from web 1.0 (albeit with a different spelling)?
They did a good job on the player though.
Good idea and interesting too – but I think it won’t necessarily replace TV as we know it today.
It will make internet video more like TV, not kill TV
And for me, Joost does a little better job…
this wont work. they’re trying to push content out to you just like pointcast etc tried to do it before. people prefer to browse around and look quickly for shorts they like to watch and comment on…. not wait like a vegetable on the internet…. thats reserved for tv time
They are simply hotlinking videos off youtube.com. From what I know this would be illegal as they are using the flv directly.
yeah – great concept. Still not developed enough for TC.
– That is not based on the rediness of the general TC’ed company but on the impact this could have. Honestly – this was premature.
don’t kill my tv, i like my tv.
This idea of killing the TV and getting rid off timeslots to distribute content will never work. People are creatures of habit; they like to know every Thursday at 8:30 there will be an episode of the office. They also like the fact that there is produced content, which is selected by intelligent people that have put some thought into what they are watching.
The Internet could learn something from TV, instead being the smug bunch of “Mac Guys” running around the world saying they have the answer to everything. Take for instance the Digg.com, it is produced content, same with slashdot.org these are huge sites that focus in topics that someone has decided rightly or wrongly will be of some interest to their audience.
I would like site to adopt more of a time slot method of delivery for special content. Why not have every Thursday at noon on techcrunch a specific, repeatable and interesting item people could tune in to. If they missed it they could go and get it on Friday morning.
It doesn’t always have to be new.
I assume they have got an agreement with YouTube to use the videos.
I like the idea and it looks nicer than SplashCast and easier to use. I know I’ll be using this!
I would not assume they have an agreement with YouTube, I would assume the opposite. The business model problem is that they can’t monetize content from another provider — unless they have a deal, which they won’t have. So their business depends on them being able to get enough content directly. Not easy.
Innovative! With limited time in my life – I like to find exactly what I’m looking for…when I’m looking for it!
WHY would there need to be an agreement with youtube in order to link to the flv? Many Many companies provide services to download the flv from Youtube and also annotate youtube videos like Splashcast, BubblePly, mojiti, etc…
Why don’t Techcrunch explain this ecosystem vs legal system on playing videos in this method because it’s simply a more complicated external Flash Movie link that is naturally apart of Flash. Even more helpful, list and explain how these companies are affecting user generated content as a whole. Do they help or hurt companies like youtube in this era of pre-content monetization?
Let’s get an intelligent conversation going that will make your readers understand what’s going on in the market and what trends or fads these companies represent, because soon, everyone is going to get blipd!
Joost is better. This seems like a more polished version of youtube.com with filtered videos and not so much content.