Ten days ago at our Real Time Stream CrunchUp, Justin.tv demonstrated a new beta product they are working on called CamTweet. It lets you launch a live video broadcast using your computer Webcam, Tweet it out to your followers on Twitter with a link to help gather an audience, and then keep the viral Tweets going by letting the audience sign into a chat box with their Twitter accounts so that each comment gets Tweeted out to their followers with a link back to the video.
It is a really simple, but powerful idea. So simple, in fact, that one of Justin.TV’s competitors, Livestream CEO Max Haot (who was watching the demo from New York via UStream, another live Web video competitor) decided to create the exact same product using Livestream’s new, yet-to-be released APIs.
What he came up with is Twitcam, which is live now. You sign in with your Twitter account (not yet through OAuth, though, which is subpar), hit broadcast, and you are off to the races. Comments are all routed through Twitter as well. You might be able to catch Max doing a test livestream here.
While pulling in people from Twitter to watch your live video stream might help with the live video audience problem, but it doesn’t do anything to make the actual live video streams any better than before. There is still a quality/boredom problem when it comes to live video because live video is really hard. But there is nothing like a real audience to force people to pick up their game.
What this proves is that no Twitter-related idea can remain uncopied for long. Twitcam launched before CamTweet even went into private beta. (Justin.TV is getting ready to release private beta invites later today—stay tuned). There are simply no barriers to entry for any Twitter app. And first-mover advantages are fleeting (see TinyURL Vs. Bit.ly). Better hurry up there, Justin.TV.
Update: Justin.TV has just thrown the switch for CamTweet, which you can try out here. Compare and contrast.
I don’t think this video blogging thing is taking off as quoted by seesmic that changed its business plan recently saying people just don’t do video blog. Maybe the live thing will help. I’m not sure.
I like UStream’s social stream better.
Agree.
These seem more like video chat type replacements
“There are simply no barriers to entry for any Twitter app. And first-mover advantages are fleeting ”
this is exactly why twitter will not last. Someone will always come out and do it better.
That’s why nothing lasts…the question is how long can you stay on top
Sounds like a good a way to lose followers.
No way, are you kidding?! (http://de.rp/myvid)
“do anything to make teh actual live video”. I laughed.
So I tried it out and for some reason all my comments on the right hand side were auto-deleted. Do not know why.
Also, this isn’t new, Tinychat does this and also has multi-user support and the option to not tweet out every comment.
Did you ever try Tinychat? The video quality looks worst than then video camera on my old old Nokia phone.
So basically a sub-par version of http://tinychat.com thats entire feature is importing tweets.
Give me 30 minutes.
I can’t believe Livestream got this designed and developed in a week. Well done.
Glad to see the didn’t copy the twitter logo too much like Twitpic and Camtweet, or use a blue bird.
Read this again and I can’t help but laugh:
“in fact, that one of Justin.TV’scompetitors, Livestream CEO Max Haot (who was watching the demo from New York via UStream, another live Web video competitor)”
hahaha very odd
to be fair, oauth is a bit of a pain in the ass.
Yeah, that’s probably part of the reason they launched so quickly – they just used basicauth.
Twitcam is very nice… it just works – very easy.
Pretty slick design and already looks better than Justin.tv’s version. Pretty sad UStream saw the demo and launched a week later while Justin.tv is still chugging away at their own product.
Design and functionality look great! Its the Twitpic for live video!!
Looks like a nice design but I think the trend in having chat on live streams taking place on twitter is a step *backwards*. The traditional IRC style is much better and much more real time than a twitter style chat will ever be.
I can understand why streaming services like it because their service is continually advertised on twitter but who really wants to read chat messages from people they follow on twitter? and who really wants to send every message they chat to all their followers?
That’s exactly why they use twitter. Everytime someone starts a broadcast or responds in the chat, a tweet is made with a link to twitcam.com. More links, higher google rank, more clicks from google, more viewers, more eyes…
Ustream > justin.tv
thank you, ustream marketing intern.
Haha… the title is funny! “Twitcam Beats CamTweet To Live Video Tweets.”
Sounds like something from an Saturday Night Live skit!
Playing around with it… http://twitcam.com/27k
Interesting, but nothing innovative or special.
So, is LeoLaporte sending out a cease and desist order yet for a live video streaming service with the name Twit yet?
I have shared my expereince and judgment on using twitcam and camtweet here : http://www.giga...on-twitter.html
i firmly believe this utility will add great value to improve real time communication and the entire relationship building exercise by improving mutual trust amongst online interactions.
Do we need it ?