It used to be that in order to
engage in a face-to-face conversation with someone, you actually had to meet
face-to-face, but the times they are a-changin’. The idea of posting videos
online is not a new one, most of us have probably seen the wonders of the hysterically
laughing baby or the finger-biting-Charlie.
But Seesmic is working with video
posting to go beyond the simple post-and-watch structure.
Seesmic
is a user-based video posting network which essentially enables face-to-face
conversations, over the web. With Seesmic, conversations do not take place in
real time; the name of the game is video responses. A user sees a video he or
she wants to discuss and posts another video in response to start or continue
the conversation. Sounds familiar? Well, video responses are not a completely new
thing, but Seesmic has developed the edge in something that is critical,
yet often unreached, in the cyber world: simplicity.
If Seesmic succeeds it will in large part because of its ease of use.
For every action a user might
want to take, there is a conveniently well-placed button. If you want to reply
to a video, hit the ‘reply’ button which will send you straight to your webcam
recording screen. If you would like to follow a person’s video postings, click
the ‘follow’ button on their profile; the more people you follow, the more users
on your friends timeline, which updates you about their new video. If you would
like to start your own thread, upload a video, or post a URL, big surprise, you
have buttons for these actions too.
With
features like personalized profile with customizable information sharing,
personal inbox for private and public videos posted to you, and the direct
video option which sends videos to single users, the Seesmic structure allows
for both public and personalized Web interactions. A combination of
socializing, networking, debating, and simply learning from others, Seesmic has a lot to offer, just
through its own users. It is, for these reasons, no surprise that Seesmic has
been successful in receiving backing from a number of investors including Atomico, the investment vehicle for the co-founders of Skype.
The
potential for Seesmic’s development is huge, with video posting and responses
becoming more and more popular on the web today. I could see Seesmic proving to the world
that you don’t have to invent the wheel. Offering a better version of
it can be enough for a startup to make it.
