Content Writing & Copywriting Blog

Do content companies owe it to their users

Apr 11, 2008 2 Comments »

Flickr recently introduced video and many of its die-hard users are protesting the move. I was just wondering, when your entire existence depends on the content generated by your users, can you take arbitrary decisions? Shouldn’t they have asked the users before introducing a feature that only a few of their users would appreciate? I mean, there are already so many websites allowing their users to post videos, so why introduce it to a photography website? Compared to videos on YouTube, the quality of photographs on Flickr is really great. The trend is I think wrong and it doesn’t bode good for people who intend to use "free" websites to post their creations, whether it’s photography, video or text.

Joost: bringing streaming content to your PC

Feb 18, 2008 2 Comments »

A long time back I had received an invitation to join Joost — an online TV viewing website — but as it happens with every contemporary technology I never explored it until today. You can blame it on my fraud of a broadband connection that never is. I think this was the reason why even after installing the program provided by Joost I never proceeded beyond viewing the "Loading…" screen. Today again I stumbled upon (not through StumbleUpon) the website, and since I recently upgraded my broadband connection (with no significant improvement of course) I decided to give it a try again. I must say I really liked what I saw and here is a screenshot:

As you can see in the screenshot you can choose many channels belonging to various genres. Even with my shameful broadband connection I could manage watching some quick shows. The reception wasn’t THAT good but for an Internet TV and considering the kind of connection I have it was quite decent.

They were sending only invitations when they had launched the website a year or so ago, but now you can simply go to the website, download the installation program and then sign up through that program. The program is like any other Windows media application. On the left-hand side you have a menu of channels or topics and when you click on them you are presented with an array of other choices. For instance you can view horror movies, animation and cartoon movies, documentaries, etc. I didn’t have enough time to go through all the channels but they seem interesting upon first look.

I am not a big fan of Internet television because in our household TV-viewing is mostly a family affair and we don’t like watching films and other TV programs alone. Nonetheless it can be an interesting diversion when you’re feeling totally distracted and for a few minutes want to do something else. I couldn’t notice something like mainstream films and TV serials but then I have yet to explore all the options.

Just today I was thinking that in near future they might offer TV sets that would connect to streaming media websites like YouTube and show their content. This will be interesting because watching programs is more fun on TV rather than on your computer or laptop. But I wonder how they will show clickable ads on TV. Or maybe they can devise some alternative revenue model without directly having to charge the viewers.