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May 14, 2008
Todd Zeigler
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Thoughts On Video Commenting

scoble Earlier today news leaked out that the comment management system Disqus (background here) has enabled video commenting on sites that use the service through a partnership with Seesmic. Basically this means that people can post video comments in addition to regular old text comments in response to articles, blog posts, etc. You can see it in action here. Seesmic had previously released a plugin that enables video commenting on WordPress blogs, and plans to release a plugin for Typepad and Movable Type as well.

When I first saw video commenting on blogs “in the wild” a few months back, I thought it was a novel idea . At this point though, I find them mostly annoying for a few reasons:

  • When I’m using the web, I’m not always in a position where I can watch a video.  Sometimes I’m listening to music.  Sometimes I’m in a public place.  Sometimes I’m on a mobile phone. If part of the conversation is taking place via video, I will often miss it.  Many others will as well.
  • It is much quicker for me to read a comment than to watch it.
  • The use of video in commenting is usually unnecessary – in most cases the same point could be made just as well through text commenting.
  • Video comments disrupt the flow of text comments.

Beyond the initial gee whiz moment, I don’t see how the value video commenting provides the end user in most cases. For me, the rise of video commenting is largely a case of people using video for using video’s sake.

If video commenting takes off and becomes ubiquitous in the coming years, I think the best practice will be to separate video comments from regular text ones, as YouTube does with video responses. This will allow people to have the latest toy on their site without disrupting the experience of people just interested in text comments.

  • Eric

    Todd, I couldn’t agree more with your take on the nature of video comments — for the most part they create clutter, an inefficient medium (I can read faster than you can talk) and for the most part highly unnecessary. Having just recently registered my seesmic invite, I find the site to be slow in many ways — firstly, browser wide flash is bloated and inefficient — I believe Adobe addressed this when they released their AIR platform. Secondly, the flow of information simply reads much slower than other websites; this is mainly caused by points you highlighted in your post.

  • Eric

    Todd, I couldn’t agree more with your take on the nature of video comments — for the most part they create clutter, an inefficient medium (I can read faster than you can talk) and for the most part highly unnecessary. Having just recently registered my seesmic invite, I find the site to be slow in many ways — firstly, browser wide flash is bloated and inefficient — I believe Adobe addressed this when they released their AIR platform. Secondly, the flow of information simply reads much slower than other websites; this is mainly caused by points you highlighted in your post.

  • Henry

    I really like video comments personally, but agree that they need to be implemented in a way that doesn’t disrupt the text-based conversation that is occurring.

  • Henry

    I really like video comments personally, but agree that they need to be implemented in a way that doesn’t disrupt the text-based conversation that is occurring.

  • http://www.blogherald.com/2008/05/14/disqus-and-seesmic-team-up-to-offer-video-comments/ Disqus and Seesmic Team Up To Offer Video Comments : The Blog Herald

    [...] what do you think about video comments? Meh? Pretty Cool? In any event, I suppose I should dust off the web cam and brush up on my oral [...]

  • http://www.delporto.org Damien Del Porto

    While I don’t disagree with your conclusions, I think there are a couple of points worth discussing around video commenting. First, I think that good meta-information (including the transcription of the audio) is necessary to ensure that you only watch the video comments you’re interested in. Secondly, from your first point, it sounds like there’s a need for software/hardware (or even an advanced O/S) to manage the video/audio feeds you view/listen to in a convenient manner.

  • http://www.delporto.org Damien Del Porto

    While I don’t disagree with your conclusions, I think there are a couple of points worth discussing around video commenting. First, I think that good meta-information (including the transcription of the audio) is necessary to ensure that you only watch the video comments you’re interested in. Secondly, from your first point, it sounds like there’s a need for software/hardware (or even an advanced O/S) to manage the video/audio feeds you view/listen to in a convenient manner.

  • http://www.contentious.com/2008/05/15/links-for-2008-05-15/   links for 2008-05-15 — contentious.com

    [...] Thoughts On Video Commenting » The Bivings Report “If video commenting takes off and becomes ubiquitous in the coming years, I think the best practice will be to separate video comments from regular text ones, as YouTube does with video responses.” (tags: video comments tools blogs social+media tidbits+fodder) [...]

  • http://www.freyburg.com/still-kinda-shaky-on-the-whole-video-comment-thing.html Freyburg» Blog Archive » Still kinda shaky on the whole video comment thing..

    [...] wander over into the Web 2.0 deadpile along with a bunch of other half-baked ideas. Here’s some other opinions on video commenting. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites [...]

  • http://blogwritinginfo.com/disqus-and-seesmic-team-up-to-offer-video-comments/ Disqus and Seesmic Team Up To Offer Video Comments | Writing & Blogging Info

    [...] what do you think about video comments? Meh? Pretty [...]

  • http://flashtoon.info/ باربي تلبيس

    We’ve opted to turn off the comment header for the time being, because while it’s a useful feature (explaining that you can get your profile in the comments by signing up for MyBlogLog), it doubles the layout challenges and it should really be in the native language. So look for it as a configurable option in the future once we’ve got the comment profiles on cruise control.

  • http://flashtoon.info/ باربي تلبيس

    We’ve opted to turn off the comment header for the time being, because while it’s a useful feature (explaining that you can get your profile in the comments by signing up for MyBlogLog), it doubles the layout challenges and it should really be in the native language. So look for it as a configurable option in the future once we’ve got the comment profiles on cruise control.

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