AOL Video reviewed
Theoretically, AOL-Time Warner has a massive advantage in the Internet Video Wars over YouTube, Google, Yahoo and just about anyone else who’s in the game.
That asset is content – and holy smokes does AOL-Time Warner have video content!
Here’s a list of what they’ve got…
Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema, CNN, HBO, the WB TV network, the
Cartoon Network, Turner Television (TNT), TBS Superstation, Castle Rock
Entertainment, Turner Entertainment, a slew of television stations each
with their own local TV news departments and probably a bunch of other
properties I’m not aware of.
But you now what? I’ve visited AOL Video and it just doesn’t cut it.
On the positive side, AOL’s video search engine finds videos from all
over the Internet (but not including Google and YouTube). That would
seem to be a big advantage over the insular search approach Google and YouTube take.
But it’s not.
AOL search serves up corporatized, squeeky clean stuff like movie trailers, video clips from the Associated Press and previews of upcoming network television programs.
Yawn.
And it doesn’t permit user uploads.
User uploaded content is what adds the sizzle to Internet TV.
We can already see what corporate America thinks just by turning on the TV. I’m far more interested in the wild, wacky, weird and sometimes wonderful stuff my fellow netizens feel is interesting – and I think that’s how the market is going to respond too.
Alas poor AOL…