Justin Thorn

iTunes is the king as an audio jukebox and audio podcast tool. However, Apple has quickly cobbled together video support in the past two releases. It is not clear how long it will be until more robust video capabilities are added to iTunes in the future. This functionality may also be broken out into an entirely separate application that is yet to be announced. The proper software for viewing vlogs on the web was released 7 months ago before iTunes supported video playback. This video aggregator is called FireAnt. It is specifically built to handle one task. Subscribe to and download videoblogs as they are posted and updated on a regular basis. Unlike iTunes which only supports Quicktime videos FireAnt can handle all video formats. This means you are not limited to the types of vlogs you can subscribe to. FireAnt comes with its own built in directory of video feeds to help get you started. While iTunes has some vlogs listed in its directory it is very hard to find them amongst the millions of songs and audio podcasts. To learn more about FireAnt watch the video the developers put together explaining their purpose for creating FireAnt and how to use it effectively.

So aside from the included directory in FireAnt how can you find other vlogs available on the web? One of the most unique methods is through a site called VlogMap. This site uses Google maps to pinpoint the general location of vloggers around the world. I found a few in this area inlcuding a guy near Raleigh. Of course this is a novel way of discovering blogs unless you are more interested in finding them based upon their physical location than their actual content.

For those who are more interested in finding vlogs by content there are a few central directory sites available. The first is MeFeedia which is essentially Flickr for videos instead of photos. MeFeedia sorts vlogs using ‘tags’. Signing up for an account is free and quick. Then you are off to browse the hundreds of entries available. Another popular choice for finding vlogs is Vlogdir (what a creative name). To see thumbnails of the latest updated vlogs visit the Video Blogging Universe which displays thumbnails of videos you can mouse over to see quick clips. There is also the social bookmarking site Del.ici.ous which has a tag page dedicated to videoblogs.

Directory sites aren’t perfect. Not all web video is posted to these sites. To find more videos you need a search engine. Google is great for finding websites but not perferct for finding video just yet. There is their beta site Google Video but there is a new player in the market of video searching. It is called Blinkx and it is built from the ground up to specialize in scouring the web for videos. They use voice recognition technology that allows you to search transcripts of all their indexed videos. You can even create a smart feed using specific keywords you are interested in then subscribe to the custom RSS feed and be notified of all updates automatically. Yahoo! is also trying to compete in the video search arena.

In the next segment Part Three I will describe how web video is beginning to make it’s move from your computer screen into your living room.

Read Part Three