VideoCrawler, an online video-viewing management tool from AT&T’s Business Development Group that’s currently in closed beta, is basically a hub that provides users with a platform to search, play, rate, comment, organize, and share videos from across the Web.The tool manages other types of media as well, including audio files, slideshows, Web radio, Web TV, feeds, online games, and ringtones. It’s similar toQPlayer, except that VideoCrawler is not downloadable–it’s all online.
We had a chance to check out the site, and it’s definitely promising.
Unlike other video-sharing sites, where users can manage only content that the sites host, VideoCrawler lets users create channels that organize and syndicate videos across numerous platforms.
Videos are viewed in the tiny window on the left-hand side. That means that if any videos are bigger than the window (such as the HD videos from Vimeo.com), they’ll be compressed. (Videos cannot be viewed full-screen yet, but according to Jim Stapleton of AT&T, that is being worked on.) In fact, I wasn’t able to view any videos in full HD (1,280 by 720). After further searching, the site let me know that the video can be viewed in full HD at vimeo.com. So essentially, VideoCrawler is running embedded material, but organizing it for you in one convenient spot. To that end, if any ads are within the video (such as with Youtube), they will be carried over to VideoCrawler as well.
VideoCrawler lets you customize the appearance of your pages layout to suit your needs. So, for example, the Results table and Hottest tables can be moved around, display a custom number of videos, and so on.
Searching on the site is easy, and results derive from videos from 3,300 different Web sites. VideoCrawler also has an Advanced Search option, so you can filter by media type, source, and rating, and even choose the order that your search results appear in. For parents, there’s a Safe Search feature; but it didn’t seem to work all that well, at least for me. For instance, when I searched on the term “Family Guy” with the feature on, the results include various clips–including an entire episode from Crackle.com in all its controversial glory. But parents can flag any specific video as inappropriate if they so choose. Safe Seach is on by default when you are not logged in as a user.
You can Favorite anything you find, and store in your collections. Your collections can then be shared across VideoCrawler if you choose to make them public. Videos can also be shared (emailed) in the same way that other video Web sites allow.
For gamers, VideoCrawler is convenient for finding videos of games they want to preview before buying: VideoCrawler can pull together all the available media from hot games such as the upcoming Diablo 3. However, I found that some of the videos (such as from sites like GameTrailers.com) did not play for me.
The site is also great for finding how-to videos. If YouTube doesn’t have the exact video you need, VideoCrawler provides the convenience of searching multiple other sites for you. YouTube videos, though, seem to play best on this site.
While still in beta, VideoCrawler is impressive so far. I would like to be able to resize my Hottest and Results tables, as they aren’t as important to me as the video itself. I also am eager to see full-screen viewing. And when searching for specific audio from one of my favorite bands, Breaking Benjamin, I wasn’t able to adjust the volume–the music simply streamed. Also, I ran into a couple of dead podcasts while searching for audio from the band (these were flagged and should be removed by the creators.)
VideoCrawler has incredible potential, and if accessed on something like an iPhone or EEE PC, it would be very satisfying for users that want to use as little memory as possible. VideoCrawler is expected to be in open public beta within the next two weeks. However, you can try it out yourself early if you head over to VideoCrawler.com. Username is mediorite and the passwor
Leave a Reply