AOL Video debuts with what “Video on the Web” calls a “Hail Mary Play.”
AOL is in DEEP trouble. It’s hemmoraging customers at the rate of 2,000,000 a year. If they keep that up, pretty soon there won’t be an AOL. So what are they gonna do? They’re tapping their video content… Remember it’s AOL-Time Warner and the Time Warner part has a ton of video – movies, television programs, special interested productions.
What I like about the approach is that you have your mainstream videos or you can visit the “Uncut Community,” which includes user-generated content. Currently the most popular video has had less than 50,000 views… but I’d suspect it gets more popular pretty quickly. No where to go but up. Uncut is not differentiated in any meaningful way, and doesn’t share ad revenue with creators. But if AOL puts some media dollars behind it it could become one of the more popular viral attractions. Couldn’t it?
I attempted to upload a video there today, but at the END of the process, they inform you that none of my Mac browsers are acceptible for uploading. Typical AOL crapology that caused me to leave them years ago.
Screw them. AOL reminds me of a sophomaniac tugabelly macrogaster that goes around telling anyone who will listen how pretty he is, but refuses to go on the diet necessary to actually be what he says he is. Pardon the bad grammar. My grammer always goes east Texas on me when I gets mad.
*correction for pedagogs: the word is ‘trugabelly’, not tugabelly
I think most of us are carrying around AOL baggage. They almost need a name change. When I hear AOL I think of the horrendous bills, the impossible customer “service,” and a monopolistic approach from the 90s.