Around 9:30 a.m. this morning I read Andy Beal’s solid overview of a new web video recommendation service provided by StumbleUpon called, prosaically enough, Stumble Video. I decided to check it out and it’s now 11:14 and I’ve wasted far too much time doing nothing but, well, watching TV.
Although the number of video aggregation or recommendation sites grow daily, Stumble Video could prove to be the most addictive of them all. (Right off the bat, Andy warned about this possiblity. “Now I fear I’ll waste many afternoon hours viewing content that matches my interests,” he wrote.) For one thing, the videos offered up upon first visit seem to represent the best of the best in each category — the videos are organized by topics that range from humor to politics to fashion, and, of course, the obligatory “cats.”
I’m assuming, although it’s not clear, that the videos selected to run in each category are those given the highest number of thumbs-up votes by other users, a great way to separate gold from dross. That would explain the high-caliber, addictive nature of the videos.
But, Stumble Video could truly convert a user into a video junkie if, as Andy points out, once the system has gained enough intelligence about viewing preferences it starts serving up videos that more closely match the user’s interest. It’s a good thing that the trademark StumbleUpon toolbar gizmo isn’t yet in place for video. Right now a user has to go to the web interface and start clicking away.
Imagine if the temptation to kill a few minutes (which could turn into a few hours) were satisfied by a mere click on the Google or Yahoo! toolbar. It sounds like a toolbar option is on the way. When it comes out, just say no…
Cynthia Brumfield at 11:06 AM|Comments(0)
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