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Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Questions for 61 Web Video Hosts

This Web Video Cheat Sheet lists 61 places that you can host your video.

Other things to consider that are not on this list:

Real People
1. Can you talk to real people about problems?
2. If you can talk to real people about problems, how long does it take to get them resolved?
3. Can you talk to real people about new feature suggestions?

Integration
4. Does the site integrate with blogging sites? How? Automatic posting? Copy and Paste code?

Transcoding
5. Does the site transcode to Flash? If so, which version, 7, 8, 9?
6. Can you choose a preferred display format? Ex: Flash, Windows, QuickTime?

Thumbnails
7. Thumbnails. Can you choose a thumbnail? Can you upload a thumbnail?

Links Back
8. Does the site allow you to link to the permalink of your blog post? To your site?
9. Does the site allow you to add additional text and links to provide additional information.

Legal terms
10. Are you giving the site exclusive rights to your video, non-exclusive rights? Do you still own your video? Can you post your video to your blog? Will you pay their lawyers fees if someone gets sued? Do you need a lawyer to explain the terms to you?

Statistics
11. Does the site keep track of how many views your videos get? How long are the statistics stored? Are there track backs so you can see where people are coming from?

Community
12. Does the site allow for comments? Video comments? Can you subscribe to a video producer?

RSS 2.0 with Enclosures
13. Does the site support RSS 2.0 with enclosures to allow people to subscribe with their own aggregator?

Closed vs. Open
14. Does the site require you to download their own proprietary player? Do you have to visit the site to view videos? Are there open API's to allow access to the videos?

HD
15. Does the site support HD videos? How do they do that? BitTorrent? Peer to Peer? Proprietary?

Speed
16. I've got a need for speed. Do the videos from the site start playing right away, or is there a lag time which forces you to press pause, go away and do somethingk else, then press play later on?

Archives
17. Can you browse through a creator's videos? Blogging is not the best platform for allowing people to browse through past videos. I know, I've got videos going back to 2004. How do I find them now? Google. Better ways are beginning to emerge. Check out Brightcove for example.