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Getting the most from your camcorder: tips, tricks, and new products for those who want to take better videos.
Camcorders, Tech and Random Rants Blog
Getting the most from your camcorder: tips, tricks, and new products for those who want to take better videos.
Jan 8, 2008 1:10 PM
Posted by Karen M Cheung
Q&A: AOL director of product marketing Scott Levine - The future of AOL Video
Posted by Karen M Cheung
 With the proliferation of online video hosting websites, the leaders of the pack are constantly battling those number two, three, and four spots, following Google’s YouTube. The CamcorderInfo.com Blog sat down withScott Levine, Direct of Product Marketing for AOL Video, AOL Radio, Winamp, and AOL LLC, who talked about its partnership with Pure Digital, how AOL plans to stay competitive, and why being number 4 ain’t bad. CamcorderInfo.com: Could you talk about the history of AOL Video?
Scott Levine: AOL has been video about four years now really heavily. About two years ago, we made a big commitment to blowing it out on the Web. We bought a company called Truveo, which is all about making the best video search product out there. The last I checked, we have about 100 million videos in the Truveo [Video Search] index which makes us one of the biggest places to find [video] on the Web.
What we’ve done at AOL Video is that we put a wrapper around that video index so that you can find all the video that’s out there. We’re really indifferent [about the source from where the video came from]. If it’s a video on YouTube, great! You’ll find it here. You’ll see a video from YouTube, AOL Music, MySpace, TMZ. Our concept really is how the best place online really helps people find, discover, and play video.> [The year before last] we launched AOL Video Uploads, which is originally known as “Uncut,” our user-uploading portion. It was a separate product, separate brand. Now it’s becoming more and more integrated. Wherever you go, you can upload a video. If you want to find it, share it, discover it, play it, create it, come talk to us.
 AOL Video and Net-Sharing CamsThat’s why the integration with the [Pure Digital Flip Ultra] cameras is such a great thing for us. It’s really a sweet spot. We know how to share things on the Internet. [We are] AOL. We know what we’re doing; we’ve been around for a long time. That’s one of the big focus for us, the integration with Pure Digital. We have a set APIs that power this portal and lots of other portals for anyone. If you want to build a camera that can integrate with our stuff, queue us a set of APIs.
CCI: When you use Pure Digital Flip Ultra, a user can directly upload to AOL Video. What other camcorders also have direct file transfer?
SL: There are a lot of net-sharing cams out there but [probably] not as easy as the Pure Digital. You push a button. It flips out. It just plugs in. We really spent some time with Pure Digital to make it a good experience. That’s something that we’re really focused on, to make it a more integrated experience.
CCI: Are there any plans with Pure Digital to release upgrades to the Flip Ultra and integration? SL: We’re always looking how to make it a better experience all the time. We’re going to start looking at a lot more stuff with the video portal. Probably at some point this summer, we are going to launch a new version of the video portal with a new look and feel. The big focus on it is how you share with your friends.
Let’s say you have a family and you want to upload your video. You’re not sure you want to show your video of your kids to the entire Internet; you want to send it to…the ten people that matter to you.
CCI: Is that private sharing available on AOL Video and the newer BlueString?
SL: It’s part of BlueString. It’s part of AOL Video. We use the same platform. When they’re uploading video to BlueString, they’re using the backend for AOL Video. We work very closely together to make that a good experience.
Rewards Profit-Sharing – Not Likely
CCI: For video contributors, a lot of the leading, popular websites offer programs to reward for when videos go viral. Does AOL Video plan to launch a rewards program for uploaders with a high traffic?
SL: I’m not sure if we plan to do that or we don’t plan. We talked about it a lot. It’s one of those things one of those things that is out there. There’s a lot of rewards that consumers get. If your goal is to become the largest videographer, we can be a site for you. If your goal is to share with your friends, we’re really good at that. It’s personal. It’s me to my family, friends, or co-workers, not to the entire world. AOL Video Acting as a Comprehensive Database for Video
CCI: How does AOL Video stay competitive with other sites that are also dedicated to video sharing?
SL: Our starting point is that we are really one of the best places online for finding everything. Let’s say you go to YouTube and try to find something, and it wasn’t there. YouTube doesn’t look at everything else. It’s the same with MySpace. They are great services; I’m not knocking them. If you say, “I don’t care where it came from,” you can go to one place. You can come to us. That value is sticking in people’s mind…Why do you come to AOL? It’s the easiest place to find everything and share it with people. Being Number 4 Ain’t Bad
CCI: The last study I read, comparing online video sharing sites, stated that AOL Video came in fourth. Is that accurate? How does AOL rank?
SL: It depends on what metrics you use. Generally, fourth, fifth, third sometimes. You look at who’s up there. It’s YouTube. It’s MySpace. It’s Yahoo. It’s us. It’s MSN. Would like I like to be number one or number two? Absolutely, [but] we are doing very well. We’re growing rapidly. Being in the top four, that’s not bad.
CCI: What’s the target audience for AOL Video?
SL: We blend to everything. We talk to the world. It’s the best, easiest, most complete place to find everything in online video. It depends on what your niche is…We hit so many targets because of its features and flexibility.
AOL and VideoEgg
CCI: You mentioned the wrapper that surrounds the displayed video.
SL: The uploader is VideoEgg. It’s also a few other types of components. We have our own for backend technology. We use a variety of different technologies for uploading. The video search is all Truveo.
CCI: Users who want to contribute sometimes have to go that extra step to download VideoEgg separately. What are the challenges using VideoEgg’s wrapper? Is there an easier way to use the AOL wrapper?
SL: When you upload, you can do that in two ways. You can download the VideoEgg installer. That offers very quick uploading. If you don’t want to install something, we offer a background uploader that is simpler. You just upload the file, and it transfers it to the server. It shows up a little bit later [going live on the site]. It’s not as fast as doing it with the VideoEgg one, but it depends on what you use. We present different options to the consumer to make it as simplest as possible.
Plans for the Future CCI: What plans does AOL to be released in the new year? SL: There are a lot. The focus is to really work on the design. We are going to work on a new front door to it to make it easy for people to find things. You’ll see a lot more stuff from us on how we integrate videos that are coming from YouTube, MySpace, whatever.
We are going to make it easier to work internationally.
CCI: Are there any details on what countries will be the first?
SL: Not really. It’s a concept of where we want to go.
CCI: Can consumers expect an interface design change?
SL: It’s something we do all the time. What we are working on is taking this experience and constantly making it better. Over the summer, we added commenting to the video portal, and it was big focus for us…We’ll probably add more social features to the video portals in the coming months so you can tag videos. You’ll be able to create collections like favorites lists, things like that. On the user-side, [AOL Video] plans to make it easier for you to share things with friends and family.
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