Cooling on Video

If you'd asked me last year what the biggest and best trend online was, I wouldn't have hesitated: Video. Totally video. All the time. VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO!!!! Buy a FlipCam. Think your thoughts and say them! Edit them with your MacBook Pro!!! IT'S SO EASY AND PEOPLE LOVE IT.

Now videos populate the web -- popping up everywhere, even when you don't want them. And it's a tool I engage with less and less. What was once a low-level commitment costs more "attention points" than I really want to spend.

First and foremost, the videos I run into online inevitably promote their own agenda. They are a means to an end and I do not feel like a participant. They seek to promote rather than entertain. And very rarely do people want to be promoted to.

I almost never watch a video online that I didn't seek out. That doesn't mean I don't want visuals when browsing around. It just means I don't want video. (Not to mention the noise that comes with them. Scores of people won't or can't watch video at the office -- rendering them useless for business purposes.)

For example, I was seeking more information on BuiltFest and thinking to myself, I should really do some art so I can talk to neat people who also do art. Hey what's this BuiltFest thing?

And there it was: a recap of last year's BuiltFest ... via video. I despaired, scrolled around, even clicked a few links. Where were the pictures? Eventually, I gave up. I do know one thing -- there was no way I was going to watch that video.

I think as more people watch video online in their personal time, for their own purposes, they become less receptive to content they don't seek out. We don't mind paying for our videos through services like Hulu2 and Amazon; we can rent movies from iTunes. And with that paid content comes a higher quality. And by high-quality, I don't mean HD. I mean in good taste. Intelligent, well-crafted content that caters to the user. As such, online video has become a upscale, user-controlled experience. Anything that violates those expectations is unwelcome.

We also increasingly associate commercial content with advertising, even if it is not actually advertising. For example, the video for BuiltFest was not trying to sell me anything. It was not a consumer product. But I immediately associated online video content with advertising. And nobody likes advertising.

Commercial video content is often "evergreen" -- meant to last a long time; this lack of a contemporary context is the nail in the coffin for promotional videos.

I'm of the opinion that the web should go back to basics. Adobe Flash has fallen and so too must video. Back to the basics! Pictures are the new video.