Posting And Tracking Flash Video

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Posting And Tracking Flash Video

My four rules for the future of media are:

1 - Microchunk it - Reduce the content to its simplest form.
2 - Free it - Put it out there without walls around it or strings on it.
3 - Syndicate it - Let anyone take it and run with it.
4 - Monetize it - Put the monetization and tracking systems into the microchunk.

I've been enjoying my front row seat watching the team build a web video show at Wallstrip and they have been following those four rules with considerable success. Each week their shows get more views and reach more unique viewers than the week before.

But I've noticed that two pieces of infrastructure are apparently missing in the flash video world and I am curious if anyone is building them.

The first is an easy tool to syndicate flash video to all the major video "portals". Wallstrip is available today at eight locations/players; Revver (their default player), YouTube, Google, Yahoo!, AOL Uncut, vSocial, Veoh, and MetaCafe. I am sure they will add more locations/players as they find new places with significant audiences.

But they have to upload to each and every one of these services. There is no "meta uploader". In the blog world, there is RSS which allows you to write once, publish anywhere. I am not aware of the equivalent in the flash video world. I wonder if all of these services could use RSS to allow people to do a meta upload. Of course there are reasons why such a system would be bad, mainly spam, but I still believe it needs to exist because there isn't going to be one place on the web where everyone watches video (as much as the Google/YouTube combo is potent).

The second problem is tracking all the views on all these services and where the views are coming from. It's simple enough (although time consuming) to visit each service, locate the video, and find out how many views it has gotten. But because most (maybe all?) of these services allow the video to be embedded elsewhere, you really don't know where the views are coming from.

In the webpage world, you put a pixel on a page, it reports to a service like Sitemeter or Google analytics or FeedBurner/Blogbeat, and you can learn all kinds of stuff about how much your page is viewed, who is viewing it, where the traffic is coming from, etc.

In the feed world, thanks to FeedBurner, you can get the same stats on your feed.

As far as I am aware, you cannot get a service like that in the flash video world. But we need one.

I would like the "meta" uploader to also put some kind of tracking code into the flash video so that I can simply visit a page on the meta uploader service and get stats on all my flash video views, no matter what service is hosting them and no matter what flash player they are distributed in.

If you know of such a service or if someone is building it, let me know. I am interested.

December 3, 2006 Venture Capital and Technology | Comments (12)

Comments

I guess vidmirror is one service that lets you upload the same video to multiple sites though never tried it.

But yes, tracking remains a big issue.

Posted by: Amit Agarwal | Dec 3, 2006 8:34:41 AM

regarding mass uploader traffic geyser claims to offer such a service. http://www.trafficgeyser.com/

IMO what is also needed is a points system that allows for a mashup economy -- i.e. a person can come and combine multiple videos to create a video mashup, and the points system determines what percentage of profits the mashed up video generates goes to each of the original publishers. i think some kind of intermediary that caters to video publishers could be the next big disruptive force in online video.

Posted by: kid mercury | Dec 3, 2006 9:41:42 AM

I think you've gotten it a little bit wrong. When I post blog entry, it is only hosted on one site. There is no need for service that cross-posts it on blogger, xanga, etc. You can create RSS feeds across many of the video hosting services, and then track them in your favorite reader.

(Although I wonder how strong the YouTube effect is (if any), e.g., how much more traffic the same video gets because it is hosted there rather than a competing service.)

What's really missing, in my opinion, is a RSS feed reader that is specifically designed for video. Democacy Player is one attempt at such a "reader."

Posted by: Michael Weiksner | Dec 3, 2006 12:04:15 PM

The folks I have seen for tracking flash:
- Mochi Media with their MochiBot - target=flash games
- Clearspring Technologies (VA based)- target=flash widgets
- websidestory - has a video tracking product
- Brightroll is focused on this as well.

Full Disclosure: I am involved in Brightroll.

Posted by: Saar | Dec 3, 2006 12:06:49 PM

Full Disclosure: I am involved in Brightroll.

Posted by: Saar | Dec 3, 2006 12:06:50 PM

Tommorrow "monday" we are releasing an RSS video player that lets users create keyword video streams here is a 60 second screencast demo of the feature. Works for podcasts as well. http://www.inclue.com/addfeedbuttondemo

Posted by: nick gogerty | Dec 3, 2006 2:47:45 PM

A startup called Itiva is distinguishing itself a second generation CDN specializing in delivery of high def video (vCDN). What intrigued me with their approach is that they break the bits down into "Quanta™" which are essentially tiny html pages and reassemble them on the client's computer. Why is this important? Now there's a way to track video views and embed on-the-fly advertising.

Posted by: nicholas | Dec 3, 2006 9:54:51 PM

all four requirements can be filled by the folks at brightcove, where jeremy allaire is that the helm.

Posted by: dave smiddy | Dec 4, 2006 11:39:37 PM

We are launching the service ctrlupload next week. This mass uploader will let you upload the same video to multiple sites at once...check it out!

Posted by: Ricardo Porto | Dec 5, 2006 4:00:52 AM

Hey Fred, We're working on the universal uploader. We are not tracking per say across sites, only in network. We'll be doing a public launch of our service next week. The uploader will follow in January time frame.

Posted by: Alex Rowland | Dec 6, 2006 10:32:04 PM

Mr. Wilson - Have been using a Mac based bit of ad serving software for our vertical search sites at the day J.O.B. and it has a significant bit of instructions for those who want to track who click off site and from where inside the Flash being served up. I'm not one to pimp stuff in a comment, so if you're interested in what this deal is zing me an email and I'll be happy to share.

Gerald in Tulsa

Posted by: Gerald Buckley | Dec 8, 2006 7:51:10 AM

Interesting topic and I do think your future of media picture is on target. There are a lot of possibilities, but I wanted to point out that our our site -- www.tubemogul.com -- at least begins to give video bloggers the one-stop tracking solution. Glad to see that you and others are interested in these types of tools.

Cheers,
John

Posted by: John | Mar 14, 2007 2:00:01 PM

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