Thursday, December 14, 2006

Digital Web Magazine - The Rise of Flash Video, Part 1:

Here’s the clincher: I am willing to bet that most if not all of you have the latest version of Windows Media Player installed on your machine. The average person will look at that and think, “Whoa, I need to upgrade.” They will do that, but get promptly returned to the page above anyway. Sometimes you get lucky and don’t see that page, instead seeing the word “Loading.” The thing is, the video isn’t actually loading. The browser isn’t seeing a darn thing and I have encountered users who will sit, looking at that word, for over 10 minutes before they just give up in disgust. Those of you who use Internet Explorer probably haven’t encountered this frustration.

Another favorite of mine is hitting a site and being told I don’t have the codec. The browser is really nice and asks me if I would like to locate it. I click OK and am told, essentially, “Your codec is here. You are a smart fellow, go find it.” Safari will tell me a plugin is not supported. Windows Media will tell me that the “specified octet stream is not recognized” and, more often than not, when there is a video I really want to watch, I can, as long as I am prepared, as shown below, to sit through a bazillion ads.


9:47 AM