The history of video for websites

By Paul Tansey, Intergage MD.

Don’t expect a timeline here as there are no specific dates when the biggest developments in video over the Web took place. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if history looks back and cites the decade 2000-2010 as the ‘online video decade’; I truly believe that YouTube and the associated use of online video has influenced our lives that much.

I also don’t think we have seen the best of online video just yet.

So, the history of video over the Web. The late 90s first saw the introduction of any kind of really useful applications of Web video. This is almost fully due to the increase in uptake of broadband, which not only meant that more users could access video content, but also provided a reason to pay for the production of video content as the target audience was expanding. Prior to this, dial-up modems had made the process of streaming any sort of video online laborious and costly.

And so from 2000-2005 video over the Web moved forward but with little direction.

It is estimated that by this point 9-17% of businesses were using Web video in some way but was it really fulfilling business objectives? I think it would be fair to say that at this point business didn’t really have a full understanding of how to properly integrate video into a strategy to increase conversions and revenues.

2005 was the turning point.

The launch of YouTube meant that video creation, publication and viewing was available to everyone from the ‘Average Joe’ on the street to the biggest corporations. It was at this point that businesses and trade associations really began to realise that they needed to up their game to separate their offerings from the crowd of user-generated content.

Now we have a whole range of video content online, of hugely varying quality.

For me, two factors separate the good from the bad of video online.

The first factor is quality. By quality I don’t mean that your video has to be extremely polished, well-edited or include car chases and huge explosions. I mean that the quality of your production has to be to the right standards to meet your objectives. This could be a polished HD epic, or a well-edited handheld camera adventure. Just be sure that the quality matches your goals.

The second factor is how far you spread your video. The word viral is used a lot nowadays and everybody hopes that their video will ‘go viral’ and spread across the globe. For me, a more accurate measure of the success of your video is how many interested, relevant viewers watch it.

As a final note, video now comes in so many different formats. Video online can be interactive (a great way for qualifying and segmenting your website visitors), used as part of adverts and used to provide brilliant testimonials.

I am truly inspired to see how online video develops in the next five years after the advances of the previous decade!

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This page is an extract from a 38 page white paper written by Intergage all about online marketing for trade associations. You can download the white paper for free here.