Buzvia Blog

Thanks to Revver.com, I have rediscovered Blip.tv!

I decided yesterday to switch to Blip.tv due to a host of problems with Revver.com which seems to be stuck in a death spiral. We have over 200 embedded videos all over the place so this switch isn’t as fun as a day mountain climbing but must be done!

Background Information

I have been writing about the video quality, statistics system and way down the list, payments (or lack of them) from Revver.com for some time now. I was hoping that being bought by LiveUniverse.com for 5 million back in February 2008 would have lead to some dramatic improvements in some needed areas as auto-cross-promotion, desktop uploader and additional options such as an auto-start. I was wrong. LiveUniverse.com doesn’t have resources of the likes of Microsoft, so why did they buy Revver.com just to delay it’s death? The management behind Revver.com completely failed by every way. All they needed to do, if the backend was as flawed as I suspect, was to spend a few million rebuilding everything from scratch to once again dominate instead of trying to milk a dying cow.

Blip.tv VS Revver.com Comparison

Both Revver.com and Blip.tv started officially in 2005 which really isn’t very long ago, they both grew exponentially since but for some reason, forked into two different directions of which, Revver.com is paying dearly for in lost users and loyalty. Revver.com was the first to offer 50/50 profit sharing of creative works but Blip.tv offers this now as well, which is why I uploaded much of my work to both sites (and a few others) “just incase”. Revver.com is “suppose” to pay monthly while, so far, Blip.tv DOES pay every quarter. The video quality is about the same on both systems but Blip.tv has far more options which will be discussed below. There seems to have been a progressive migration from Revver.com’s more popular creators to Blip.tv and soon you will see why.

Blip.tv: Background

Blip.tv is a video sharing site which hosts productions from around the world. The advantage to using these types of services are numerous but not having to worry about bandwidth and taxing hardware too much is reason enough to use them. Throw-in free transcoding, distribution in multiple formats, realtime usage statistics, extended community exposure and easy sharing from e-mail to embedding code. Getting paid, in my opinion, is way down the list but a nice bonus never the less.

Blip.tv: How it Works

If you are familiar with YouTube.com, using Blip.tv is just as easy! Create content, upload and you are done! There is a heck of a lot more options for content creators with Blip.tv than either Yahoo.com or Revver.com but don’t fear, once you get the hang of it, things are logically placed. They both have desktop video uploaders but I like Blip.tv’s more for ease and power of use as well, their user interface blows Yahoo.com out of the water!

Blip.tv: The Good

Blip.tv seems to offer almost realtime statistics, this is amazing considering I had to wait a day from Revver.com for this information and it’s also far more detailed with a nice, easy to use interface to boot! Blip.tv also seems very progressive in the success of it’s content creators with a tonne of automatic areas of distribution from Twitter to iTunes (something I never even considered). Their publishing system is also very well layed-out other than a missing thumbnail generation system (more info below on that)… they even allow a mobile upload and a variety of “export” formats for the end user which is fantastic! On a purely “do the right thing” tangeant, they are also pushing  for online video standards though their Video Vertigo association though I couldn’t get this page to load in my browser. I started using Blip.tv seriously only yesterday, so I am sure there are a number of features I don’t know about or used but rest assured, Blip.tv is showing the future of online video networks while Revver.com represents the past as far as I am concerned. Player wise, Blip.tv has a great little module that allows an incredible amount of customization so you can easily create something matching your sites design. Here, for example, is a player I made in only a minute that works great! The sizing issue is on purpose, you can modify at a pixel level if you wish!

Blip.tv: The Problems

So far, the only problems I have had with Blip.tv has been flash (FLV) conversion errors with 3D animations I need updated on my site and thumbnails. For the first issue, I am waiting a reply from customer support but sending videos using TubeMogul.com causes no problem but direct (site or desktop) uploads just cause conversion system errors. As for thumbnails, shouldn’t there be an automatic thumbnail creation and selection system? I realize I can upload my own thumbnails but having a system that automatically selects it would be a huge time saver. If Wikipedia is to be believed, Blip.tv is banned from China – not a big issue but something that should be considered as they will shortly represent half of all internet users over the next few years. It’s great that they say “no” to the communist state’s censorship (borderline paranoia) and I have no problem agreeing with not allowing governments to dictate “tastes” to its populous.

Blip.tv: Alexa Ranking

Both Revver.com and Blip.tv seem to be playing tag when comparing the two, in both reach and rank. The two are almost idential pageview wise but knowing how easy it is to game Alexa, this has to be taken lightly. Both are hovering in-between the 2-3K mark.

Blip.tv: Competition

Wow… where to start. The online video network marketplace is probably as saturated as internet dating sites.

Blip.tv: Final Verdict

Blip.tv is what Revver.com should have been by now. Interestingly, Revver launched 1.0 of it’s system in 2006 with little improvements since then while Blip.tv has continually upgraded its systems, which is the same process I use for my companies. I doubt Revver.com will last another year but for Blip.tv, the future looks incredibly blinding if they keep on this path of continuous improvement!

The Bottom Line

Continuous improvement in anything is essential for eventually dominating a marketplace.

Buzvia: Revver.com, LiveUniverse.com, Blip.tv, Video Vertigo, WoodMarvels.com, Yahoo.com, i3DS Page on Blip.tv and Blip.tv on Wikipedia