At the start of semester I was someone who really didn’t get the idea of YouTube. Yes a friend might send me a funny clip every now and then, but that was the true extent of my use of the site.
However, as this semester has passed, YouTube and I have become friends and I am increasingly beginning to understand why people use this medium to engage one another... maybe understand it an a SM platform more than I would something like Twitter.
We have all recently seen the drastic changes Facebook has been making, and I think in acknowledging their existence as not just a video sharing site, but also as an SM platform, YouTube has introduced some changes too.
· Logoless player – a huge aspect of their brand recognition comes from the placement of their logo on the bottom of every video shared on the site. But no longer is it is requirement. They have provided users with the option to remove the YouTube logo from videos by adding "?modestbranding=1" to the end of the URL. The logo will only appear at the end of the clip. This means that professional users of the site are no longer plagued with looking like they have ripped content from another source.
· HD preview image – if you up load a video to the site as HD no longer will it loose its quality when played at a low quality version. YouTube has brought in the ability to preview HD images of the video that retain a high quality so that low-quality viewers don’t miss out.
· As seen on – bloggers love to share video content and now YouTube will be introducing ‘As seen on’ pages that will enable you to compile a ‘playlist’ of the where videos have been posted.
These features seem to have video creators on side, with YouTube’s changes removing some of the ‘amateur’ elements of their site. It seems to have given the site a much more professional look and feel with a lot more consideration for the professional user (be it sharing a video for business use or putting up a video for promotional reasons).
Even though they are a video site, they are making sharing much more about the content going up rather than just the visual impact of a video. They are making themselves increasingly orientated to bloggers that imbed or share videos, and are attempting to increase their ‘social’ infrastructure.
I think the changes to YouTube are positive and rather than just making their site easier to use is actually adding value and meaning to their service.
What do you think? Is YouTube set to rival other SM platforms?
YouTube is certainly the leader in video sharing, and therefore have to date been quite unique, and in a way I don't think attempted to rival other forms of SM. The value they added with these changes will certainly see an increase in commercial use, and exactly as you put it, it won't look like its just been ripped content from somewhere else. I would be keen to see a few months down the track whether these changes have indeed had the desired impact, i.e. move towards vids being shared more via blogs etc.
ReplyDeleteRoss
Great post! I agree, YouTube has loosened up the desire to only let people watch videos on their actual site, which has allowed the brand to spread much further. I also appreciate the classier look but they still need work on those "recommended videos"!!
ReplyDeleteYouTube is great for businesses to upload their ads and get hits across the world. I think the real rivalry will increase when Google+ gets more momentum because they'll surely incorporate YouTube in a new fundamental way into the platform.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments people!
ReplyDelete@Craig They have another proposed strategy set to come soon re: recommended videos... there's been a bit of chatter about those changes but cant wait to see what they do.
I feel like this is the first time YouTube has really started to up the anti and begin to make a splash.
In the spirit of social media - there has been an update to more changes by YouTube (between Facebook and Google+ it seems like its change season) they are looking to now expand their service offering to musicinas, allowing them to sell merchandise, tickets and song downloads through YouTube rather than diverting traffic to other sites such as iTunes.
Read more at: http://www.reelseo.com/youtube-lets-musicians-sell-merchandise/