Viddler, a service that aspired to be a stand-out competitor to other video hosting services like YouTube and Vimeo, announced yesterday that, effective immediately, they are going to stop allowing users to sign up for their free personal accounts. All existing personal users of Viddler will be able to maintain their accounts (for the time being, at least), but all future registrations will have to be premium accounts.

Note from Allen: the announcement to remove the ability to create personal accounts comes three months after Viddler founder Rob Sandie was told by the board that his, “services were no longer required”. He was going to remain on the Viddler board but he updated the post to note that he resigned a few weeks later from the board.

Following is the announcement that was sent out to existing personal account holders:

Howdy Viddlers,

Many of you are the reason Viddler has risen to where it is today. You are the ones that dedicated hours everyday creating videos, viewing and commenting on the videos of others, and participating in the many community adventures. There’s been countless smiles, tears, frolics, artworks, deep thoughts, kids, birthdays, unboxings, and marvelous accents.

Gosh, this is looking like one of those farewell letters you receive from a company that got acquired and then gathers dust (*ahem* Jaiku). This is certainly not the case.

It’s no secret that Viddler’s community of free users hasn’t been as active in the past couple of years. You guys and gals have grown up, changed hobbies, switched jobs, fallen in love, or just miss iJustine. That’s understandable, but we still love you, so we’re giving away a return trip to AUSTRALIA if you login and upload a video.

Okay, not really. Maybe one day. ;)

In all seriousness, we do love you, and we just want to let you know that we’ve decided to remove the option to sign up for a Personal/Free account. This will not affect any of you, but it will mean that new users will be required to sign up for a Pro, Business, or Enterprise account.

This decision was made because a good portion of new user sign-ups are spam or businesses wanting to trial our service without using the free business trial (which previously required a credit card, but now don’t).

Since this is a fairly significant change, there will be changes to the website which might confuse some of you who haven’t been back in a while. Rest assured, your videos, comments, tags, and more will stay intact.…

---

If you have any questions or handy feedback, then you’re welcome to contact me:derek+signups@viddler.com.

I look forward to seeing you around Viddler, and next time we meet in person.

To keep up-to-date with everything Viddler, please visit and subscribe to The Viddler Blog.

Huge thanks and many hugs,
Derek Steen
Community Participant since 2007
Community Leader since 2008

P.s. This message was shown to several of our Personal users and they approved of its contents. I hope you all feel as accepting as they did.

It’s neat to see that, despite this difficult business decision, the principals of Viddler are keeping their sense of humor. It’s kind of a shame we, as personal users, didn’t see more communication of this caliber in the past. For some users, that kind of personal touch can be exactly what’s needed to convince someone to switch to a premium account.

It will be interesting to see how Viddler fairs going forward.

Find more stories about: online video, Viddler

Earlier this month AOL (NYSE:AOL) acquired the Huffington Post blog for $315 million. I posted on Twitter that I wondered if online video hosting service Viddler would be next for the “new” AOL. I still think the acquisition makes sense for both companies.

AOL has a large number of brands (and will be even larger once the above acquisition is complete) and I have to imagine that video will be a large piece of AOL’s pageview generating strategy going forward. Today AOL has a video site and they also own the Truveo video search engine.

Viddler currently works with AOL’s Engadget tech blog for their gadget videos. AOL’s Techcrunch blog uses Ooyala for their video hosting and this hosting could easily move to Viddler if there was an acquisition. It appears that the videos on AOL’s video site are self-hosted.

I am not 100% sure but I think Viddler has only raised some angel funding (which is quite impressive considering they are in the video hosting business). Viddler also received $50,000 from Ben Franklin Technology Partners last April. Viddler lists a team of 16 people based outside Philly and in Poland.

My guess is that AOL could acquire Viddler for a very reasonable price and bring a strong base of video hosting, video analytics and monetization inside the company. If there was an acquisition, Viddler would become the corporate hosting platform. This central repository would help AOL cross-promote videos across all of their channels. There is tremendous opportunity in cross-promotion that AOL is losing everyday by hosting with so many different video partners. For example, when you are finished watching the latest iPad 3 unboxing video on Engadget, you could jump over to Techcrunch to watch the latest TechCribs video.

AOL would also gain the ability to use their internal ad sales team to sell and integrate video ads across all of their properties.

The only question I am left with regarding a potential acquisition is whether Viddler would remain open to other companies to use — they currently host video content from a variety of companies including Gawker and the Cheezburger Network.

Find more stories about: acquisition, acquisitions, AOL, online video, Viddler

Web analytics service Clicky has announced the launch of their video analytics service which is part of the overall Clicky web analytics platform. Clicky has integrated directly with video hosting company Viddler and provides the ability to track videos from YouTube and Vimeo as well.

The Viddler integration will go live sometime in August as Clicky notes that the Viddler team has some additional work on their end before the connection is made live. The Viddler integration will not require you do anything different to make sure the video stats reach Clicky.

To use the YouTube connection with Clicky, there is a bit of work involved. You can read about the changes to your blog or website that must be added on the Clicky help site. It addition, the way you embed videos is different than just copying and pasting the code directly from YouTube into your blog. The same goes for Vimeo…you would need to add some code to your templates and then change the way you insert videos into your blog or website.

Here’s an example of the stats page:

Note – we are an affiliate for Clicky but none of the links in this post are affiliate links.

Find more stories about: analytics, Clicky, online video, Viddler, YouTube

Video hosting service Viddler has announced the availability of their new analytics tool today. The reporting engine is provided through a partnership between Viddler and TubeMogul.

From the announcement, “Comprehensive statistics about your videos are now only a click away. Of course, Viddler Analytics answers even more questions than those above. How much storage has my account used this month? How much video bandwidth have we used so far? Am I close to my account level threshold yet? These questions, and others, are very important to our Business level accounts.” The partner analytics provides more “social” stats around comments, total video views and individual video stats.

To use the Viddler analytics tool, you must be a business or partner customer. Business accounts start at $100/month. When I attempt to load the analytics tool I am redirected back to the Viddler home page. They should probably change that to redirect to a page describing the analytics option and how to get access to it.

I love seeing more stats and analytics around the content I create so I welcome a new set of video metrics. Now I guess I need to create more videos…anyone see the BloggerKing lately?

Here’s an overview video of how the analytics tool works:

Find more stories about: analytics, social video, Viddler, Video

IAC-owned online video hosting service Vimeo has announced that they will begin to remove source video files. The removal will take place beginning on August 1st. The source files will be stored for a week and then removed. Apparently storing huge video files costs money – can you believe it?!?

If you upgrade to a Vimeo Plus account, the source files will be stored as long as you are a pro member. Vimeo notes that they will continue to store the MP4 file that is used in the video player. A Vimeo Plus subscription is $60/year.

From the Vimeo announcement, “Please understand that this is not a devious scheme to force you to upgrade to Plus. This was a hard decision to make, but we make these changes to ensure Vimeo’s longevity so that you *can* use it for free.”

I wanted to see what the policy is regarding storing source files at another popular video hosting service so I spoke with Viddler’s technology evangelist Colin Devroe. Colin noted, “Our current and past policy has always been to keep original sources for as long as an account is active. We’ve recently begun to either delete, or archive, videos from accounts that haven’t had any activity in as long as a year – to help reduce costs. Although our policy may change in the future, we’re confident that we can keep original sources for as long as an account is active rather than for a specific duration after upload.”

Find more stories about: online video, Viddler, Vimeo

Video hosting service Viddler has announced the launch of a new service today, 15s. The idea behind 15s is to create videos using a webcam of 15 seconds or less. The videos are then instantly sent to your Twitter buddy list. The videos also appear in your Viddler video stream. Assuming this service becomes popular, it might be good for Viddler to allow a split between regular videos and these new 15s videos. Viddler evangelist Colin Devroe tells me that this is the 1.0 version and more enhancements are on the way.

This new Viddler service is direct competition for recently launched 12seconds. If they add text and video comments, it could be strong competition for Seesmic. Earlier this year, Seesmic followed Viddler into the video blog commenting space.

Viddler recently launched a fully-customizable player and Viddler Vidgets. Here’s an example of a 15s video from RandomSarah:

Update: Sarah had no idea how she would use 15s an hour ago and now she is addicted to it:

Find more stories about: 12seconds, gigaomnews, online video, Quick News, Twitter, Viddler

Video hosting service Viddler has announced that they are the official video sharing site for the New Media Expo conference later this week in Las Vegas.

The big news is that at the event they will launch a fully customizable player. The Viddler logo can be swapped out for your logo (we do that here on CN now). The video can link to your site instead of linking to Viddler which will drive traffic back to your site instead of to the Viddler video page. There apparently will also be some iTunes integration. All of these changes are very positive and add to what I consider the best overall video player on the market. It’s good to see that they listened to my suggestions. :-P

Next, I’d like to see a video mashup application which allows me to inject an intro/outro into each video I upload. This way all I need to upload is the "meat" of the video. This would also help with re-branding the videos at anytime because the mashup would happen in real-time as the video is streamed to the viewer. That’d be hot.

Viddler could also add kyte-style branding by allowing a “frame” to wrap the videos with the producer’s branding. Again, that’d be hot. If they really want to get freaky, they could allow the video producer’s ad network to be inserted into the “frame” and it could follow as the video is embedded if the producer chooses.

Check out Viddler CEO Rob Sandie and Technology Evangelist Colin Devroe in the video below talking about both announcements. Watch for the cheap pops about halfway in when they throw a "vaynerchuk" out to the crowd.

Viddler recently launched Vidgets which are a collection of video widgets. Earlier this year Viddler launched a Facebook app.

Find more stories about: online video, Quick News, Viddler

As I create more videos and have more discussions with online video talent, the conversation seems to move many times to finding the optimum hosting and distribution structure for video. I want to make sure my viewers never hit a dead end and can easily find other videos to view from the series. Since at least half of my videos are business-oriented, the idea of putting them on YouTube and hoping for the "viral effect" is not attractive. Earlier this year I wrote about the online video market here in NYC and I see it continuing to expand today.

Currently I am using Viddler almost exclusively for my videos. I like Viddler because their player allows for in-stream commenting and their upload function is easy-to-use. I find the uploading function on YouTube to be absolute crap, can’t they even offer an upload status bar?!? For the purposes of this discussion, we will only discuss pre-recorded video content and not live services (Mogulus, Ustream) or mobile video streaming (Kyte, Qik, Flixwagon).

I get the idea behind services like TubeMogul which put your content everywhere and I will probably look at doing this as well. But it’s critical from my standpoint that you select a video sharing/hosting partner to work with in which you can build your video brand. This means that the player that’s used on the video creator’s site remain consistent over time. Some video content creators are being paid to use services and I see this trend continuing as the video creation market expands and hosting networks fight to get out of the commodity business.

There are a number of indie video stars on the scene today. I’ve selected Justine and Gary Vaynerchuk to use as examples with regards to how they use various video hosting networks for their videos and shows. When I check out Justine’s Web site, she seems to use YouTube as her first choice and it’s clear that this strategy has helped her with growing her brand. Justine has over 18,000 subscribers on YouTube. These subscribers drive massive views to her videos. She uses Viddler as well for some videos and all of her videos are distributed there as well. Gary Vaynerchuk at WineLibraryTV uses Viddler for the main player on the site. Gary also has a distribution deal with Revision3 which publishes a shorter wine show on Revision3 and other video hosting providers including YouTube.

There are more options than ever for video hosting – from the most basic YouTube through working with distribution partners like ForYourImagination who can produce, record and package the shows. Viddler, Vimeo, Veoh all sit in the middle and I’d consider blip.tv a "show" distributor.

Below is the setup I have been considering for the videos I create on CN. My goal is to find the best combination of:

• reaching the largest audience
• using the best technology
• using a player with good usability for the viewer
• outside distribution to as many sources as possible
• tracking and analytics
• ability to monetize the videos over time — either with cpm views or finding a sponsor

Business Shows:

These are videos I shoot of product demos and also include our interviews like the one we shot with Dina Kaplan last week. I am looking at using blip.tv for these videos. blip.tv can offer me a gallery player to allow viewers to watch any video they like. blip.tv also has an advertising network and also works with shows to find sponsors. This is very attractive to me – especially in the beginning. blip.tv will also distribute the shows to iTunes which could work relatively well for creating loyal viewers.

Fun Videos:

These videos include the Twitter Song and How to Effectively Quit Blogging. I see continuing to post these videos on Viddler because the interactivity and community there is a perfect fit for these videos.

Conclusion

I’d love some feedback on my thoughts and suggested video network usage for CN. What am I missing in creating the right mix? The next mission is to get a better video setup and move away from my tiny Canon Elph to something a bit more professional.

Editor’s note: I am not paid (nor have I been) for using any video service to-date.

Find more stories about: blip.tv, ForYourImagination, Gary Vaynerchuk, Insights, nextNY, NYC, online video, Revision3, Viddler, Video, Vimeo, YouTube

Central Pennsylvania-based video hosting service Viddler has announced the launch of Vidgets today. Vidgets are widgets using videos hosted by Viddler. Viddler describes Vidgets as, "With Vidgets you can create lists of videos using any Viddler username, a tag on Viddler, a combination of the two, featured videos, popular videos here on Viddler."

Creating a Vidget is pretty easy although the code doesn’t show up until you hit preview which is in another colum – bit odd on the usability. Below is a Vidget I made by searching for iPhone videos featuring iJustine. It’s a "list" Vidget – there are also playlist and reel Vidgets.

What would be interesting to know is if the vidgets are automatically updated as new content that matches your selections is added to Viddler. Also it would be great if you could order the videos as you prefer. For example, I may want the video placed in the 3rd position to actually show up first. Would give the Vidget more of a storyline.

Considering that the Vidget code combines HTML and the Flash Viddler player, they are missing a golden opportunity for some heavy search engine optimization! Why not slap a simple "This Vidget Built By Viddler" or "XYZ Vidget Built By Viddler". All of the cool kids are doing it – see Scribd or Docstoc for good examples.

Find more stories about: online video, Quick News, Viddler, widgets

Video hosting service Viddler is currently down and has been for the last 45 minutes or so (as of 8pm eastern). Viddler CEO Rob Sandie has been using Twitter to communicate with Viddler customers. It looks like most of the issue is around their content delivery network (CDN) Limelight. The latest update is:

Limelight says they had DOS attack, but they lost all power as well… not entirely sure.. but should be up soon

Follow SandieMan on Twitter for the latest service updates. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that Viddler has been down.  Sandie has also posted a blog entry about the outage.

We recently wrote a column explaining how important it is to have a status page/blog where users can visit to know what’s going on with outages and maintenance. Viddler just learned an important lesson – don’t host the status page/blog on the same servers as the main service!

Update 9:15pm Eastern – Viddler is back – resume watching quality video product.

Find more stories about: Quick News, Viddler

comScore is out with their latest online video report for March 2008 covering U.S. Internet users. YouTube continues to lead the pack and represents 98% of all videos in the Google Sites category. Tell me again why they keep Google Video around? It’s seems Google abandoned it when they acquired YouTube.

Google moved up another 2.6 share points to 38% of all videos watched. The real telling statistic is that YouTube visitors watched an average of 50 videos each over the month. No one else comes close to this in the lead pack as Microsoft Sites comes in second with nearly 10 videos per user. More videos per user mean more ability and options to monetize over the session. In total videos watched, Fox Interactive came in second followed by Yahoo Sites, Viacom Digital and Microsoft Sites.

Another juicy bit in the report is that the average online video viewer watched 235 minutes of video. Wow. And with live video slowly taking off, this number will only continue to increase.

*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.

Find more stories about: comScore, online video, Quick News, Viddler, Vimeo, YouTube

Video hosting service Viddler is announcing they have reached terms on an agreement to carry all of the Revision3 shows on Viddler’s network. I am not exactly sure which side of the table this benefits more but I am guessing it’s Viddler. If you are a fan of any of the Revision3 shows: GigaOm Show, Tekzilla, Kevin and Pal sit on a couch and drink beer for money or PixelPerfect, once you friend the show on Viddler, you will be instantly updated once new shows are available.

Viddler technical evangelist Colin Devroe has all of the details on the distribution partnership.

In all seriousness, this is an exciting deal for Viddler. It’s good to see them continue to sign on partners and with their existing base of Web celebs, they on a great road towards mainstream adoption. Will Viddler be the one to challenge YouTube eventually as a video host? Viddler seems to be the only video host to be working on innovations and technology advancements.  The Viddler player kicks the arse of all other video players. 

Now we know why Kevin Rose was at the Viddler dinner at SXSW. He sat at the grownups table with Rob from Viddler and Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback.

Find more stories about: Digg, Quick News, Revision3, Viddler

Video hosting service Viddler is out today with a new Facebook application which I have to admit is pretty damn slick. It replicates the majority of functionality from Viddler.com into Facebook. Viddler’s lead social developer Kyle Slattery was the man behind the application. The app uses Viddler’s new open API and is a great way to show off the power of their API. There’s no poking here!

The Viddler Facebook app shows your videos plus the latest videos from Viddler and the daily highlighted videos. It appears to handle widescreen videos as well. Developer evangelist Colin Devroe tells me that soon search functionality will be added. You can also add videos into Viddler directly from inside Facebook.

The only weird things I’ve noticed so far are:

• while you can view both Facebook comments and Viddler comments, if you comment on the Facebook application, the comments go to the Facebook side. I’d like to see these integrated somehow – you know how I feel about comments all over the place!
• when the first video ends and you navigate inside the video — the page doesn’t update which could cause some weirdness when you try to comment and it ends up on another video incorrectly.

If you would like an invite, you need to be my friend on Facebook – click here to friend me. Once you’ve done that, send me a message on Facebook and I will get you an invite straight away. Facebook limits invites to 15 a day so it might take a few days to get to everyone – be patient!

Find more stories about: API, Facebook, Insights, online video, Viddler

Video messageboard application Seesmic appears to be entering the video blog comments game today. I suggested that Seesmic should get into this game last month (Loic, for the check, please spell my name Allen). Video host Viddler seems to be leading the video comments charge and currently their plugin works with WordPress.

The new Seesmic video commenting system is live on Techcrunch (one of Seesmic’s investors). Here is a screenshot from a post on Techcrunch:

Unfortunately my video camera isn’t unpacked yet so I can’t test it. Michael Arrington from Techcrunch commented last week that he has a lot of trolls and losers who comment on TC and that he spends an hour every day removing comments. What will it be like now that there will be video?

I am guessing that if you post a video comment using the Seesmic plugin, it will create a thread in the Seesmic application. Will video comments help save Seesmic? Perhaps it will help as I’ve suggested before that I like the idea of being able to contribute in the fashion you prefer on a blog (audio, video, text). With Loic’s smile and charm, I am sure that many blogs will install the plugin which will lead to greater visibility for Seesmic. As for the Seesmic app itself, I still struggle as to why video is a better medium for a messageboard than text is.

Find more stories about: blogs, online video, Quick News, Seesmic, Viddler

Online video host Viddler has a variety of updates coming out of their PA headquarters tonight. Community Evangelist Colin Devroe has moved to a newly created role as Technology Evangelist. In this role, Devroe tells me he will focus on, "setting up a developer community that will use Viddler’s platform for their own applications/services/businesses.  I will also be working with licensed partners to help them get up and running using our systems."

Joning the Viddler team as the new Community Leader is Brandice Tolson. Tolson is one of the most active people using Viddler and I think it’s a good move. Lastly, intern Kyle Slattery is now full time as Lead Social Developer.

The other update is product focused. Viddler has updated their WordPress plugin and it’s now more than just video comments. It’s a tight tie into Viddler where you can see the featured videos and search for videos to insert inside of a WordPress post.

Here’s a video overview Devroe created explaining the updates. Caution: if you get sea sick, you might not want to view this video.

Find more stories about: online video, Quick News, Viddler, wordpress