When YouTube hit, everything changed. Now there are a thousand video sites where you can watch 400×300 pixel videos of your pets and favorite bootlegged moments from Family Guy.
What’s next? JOOST is on the horizon, designed to bring high-end content and high resolution video. They’ve got deals with Fox, Sony, and Time Warner. That might be hard for the indie filmmaker to break into.
Today I uploaded a short to VUZE, (formerly ZUDEO), an on-demand service from Azureus. Using VUZE requires downloading a special browser. There’s a ton of content, from movie trailers to A&E programs and the sci-fi show Red Dwarf. I believe the content is downloaded to your computer using bit-torrent, but I’m not sure yet.
To download the full version visit vuze.com
Another site I’ve been toying with is DOVETAIL, which is aimed at independents. Again, you need to install a special program.
What worries me is that none of these is available in your standard browser. It will take a lot of persuading to get the bulk of mainstream users to download a new program.
It could happen — just look at iTunes. That interface had the advantage of being tied into the Mac operating system and the popular Quicktime player, though.
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