It’s a race for live video chat. Which one is right for you? First the history, then some recommendations based on what you plan to do (one-to-one or one-to-many).
- First it was Stickam, where community people would run group video sessions.
- Then came Blogtv.com, which provided advertising dollars to popular online-video talent to run live shows (the most-subscribed blogtv creators are, not coincidentally, all most-subscribed on YouTube).
- Stickam and Blogtv, according to Alexa, are currently fairly close in terms of visitors and time spent on site (as much as 13 minutes).
- Skype also extended its audio chat to video. And of course there’s always AIM video for people either far behind or far ahead of the time.
- Then Google/Gmail Video Chat made it easy, and integrated with Google mail.
Now Facebook is getting into the game. Given the proliferation of Facebook, I’d guess we’ll see significant use of its video chat — perhaps more than Gmail or AIM since it’s a common platform regardless of e-mail or hosting provider.
It’s unfair to compare these, because they have different purposes. Here are three, with my recommendations:
- Want a video-conference call that includes several people, and potentially observers with view/comment access only? Try Stickam.
- Want to do a “show” for a large audience? Blogtv is probably best, unless you want to interact with interviewees or callers… then it gets limited.
- Going one-to-one? AIM, Google Video Chat, Skype, and FaceBook seem like reasonable bets. Given that FaceBook likely has your network established, I’m betting on it surpassing the others.
nalty merck
I’m not feeling chatty lately.
Why do you ask a question and then answer it yourself?
By the way, I had a dream about you last night that involved one of those huge tortoises. Actually a whole bunch ofthose huge toirtoises. all I can say is, I’m glad no one at PETA is psychic because if they were, they’d be demonstrating on your lawn right now.
If I were to use one of these, and I’m not sure I would, it would probably be Facebook, since I live there anyway.
TokBox is much less buggy than Stickam. That is of course if you are into socializing on the web…which I am not. Damn it.. Really! I’m not!
Ohhhh a Tweet!
AIM is so easy. We do live video chats all the time this way. But every time people see me doing this, they look at me like I’m from the future. I don’t know why more people aren’t using this feature.
Now that facebook is getting into the game, it’s going to become much more common, I reckon. Facebook really is like crack. And I don’t even like people!
@2 Tortoises are, speaking as a former psych undergrad, an interesting and revealing choice. They have shells and are somewhat protected from the torture of corporate life and blogs (as well as principals) and in that respect differ from their human counterparts. When I get stressed, I usually have dreams of me in a wobbly boat with alligators all around. I’m planning to take 2 Ambien tonight so I don’t remember my dreams… I suspect the alligators in tonight’s Freudian visit will spit razors, have poison horns, and squirt acid… and my boat will be made of tissue paper.
This post was designed so as to get maximum hits from searches on social networking sites, n’est-ce pas?
I use Stickam and Blogtv occasionally… and I find Stickam to be the most “functional”, despite its more-than-occasional “bugs” from time-to-time. I like TokBox, but Tokbox to me seems like it’s more of “private” tool. Wow, I use “quotes” way too much. “Don’t I?”
@7
Only two ambien so you won’t remember your dreams? Lightweight.
Hi EnergeticAllen,
Why do you see Tokbox as a private tool? Curious…