YouTube and beyond..
Hosting Platforms and Ease of Content Creation
Gone are the days when content was created by the big players alone. Smart phones and Apps have revolutionised the individual space and Small Businesses. The hosting platforms provide enticing tools and apps which make it a cake walk..
With the on going tiktok vs youtube debate, I was wondering why Tech giants like Google did not provide even meager tools for video generation in their youtube platform.. Was it an oversight or did they clearly not want this space.. If tiktok is so popular with many, perhaps it is the fresh interface and ease of video editing. Instagram is popular not just for hosting and discovering pictures but for its amazing amazing filters for the uploaders.
Google is like a grand parent in the dotcom world.There is no doubt about the discoverability and the versatality of Youtube platform as an end user. However, from the content creator perspective, Youtube expects end user to be equipped with editing tools.
Three years back, I wanted to upload a few educational videos.. A few slides and audio attached to each.. I did not have an iPhone back then.. For a meger requirement like this there seemed no tool in youtube.. And I forced myself to use the familiar PPT with audio attached to slide and save it as a video file.. It was hard for me to believe that Youtube could not offer an easy tool like this when so many individual videos seemed to be of this kind.. In the cooking world.. there is Tasty videos.. Hebbar’s kitchen.. All it needs is a simple video and text stitching software that is provided these days even by cooking websites..
The first time I heard about YouTube was at work place. I was working as an embedded engineer at Texas Instruments in their GSM GPRS chipsets when Smart Phone design was still in infancy. Hardware acceleration for Image Decoding was the kind of thing at that time.. Video was still a long way in mobiles.
In 2005, my manager was a techie nerd and he shared this Youtube announcement. I could not understand his excitement.. YouTube? Like a TestTube? Did they have videos in a tube? Sounded weird.. I wonder how many years it took for me to actually use YouTube as internet was not a second nature to me back in those days till the Smart phone made its way.
For that matter, in the Internet bubble era, I was quite a dumwit when I received my first LinkedIn and Facebook requests in email. I thought they were spam or reached me by mistake.. An ex colleague sending a ‘Join a Network of Engineers’ kind of message made me think it is probably something with Networking and I simply dismissed for a long time. Even ‘Facebook’ join request did not ring a bell and it took me months..
In the audio arena, Anchor has great tools to enable serious podcasting business.. The effects are so uplifting in terms of background music, stock images, rearranging audio segments, episode management, scheduling to list a few..
Medium has replaced Blogger with its limited but immaculate professional looking typesetting and the discovery.. Back in years just before 2K, it was an Aha moment to have a personal web page and host something the whole world could see.. It was more experimental among Fresh Grads than serious passion back then..
With amazon’s KDP, printing and self publishing at zero cost has never been so easy.. The tools and support are kind of OK if not enticing..
Even FB and Google meet with their live offerings are providing broadcasting like features for people with followers where search and discoverability is not the key..
We are in an era with limitless possibilities.. Technology has so many offerings in the creative space be it hosting, discovery, audio, video, text or even book printing.. Each offering has its charm and lifetime and it is interesting to see them come and go making way for newer designs and products.
