alanwilliamson

Asterpix sets a new standard in online video

There is no doubting that online video has taken off big time. Broadband internet, coupled with the ease of the Flash plugin has allowed literally millions of users to experience video without evening having to think about the sheer logistics required to pump that much data to them. YouTube has demonstrated the demand for user generated content (and also ripped off copyrighted material!). But really after you've watched it, embedded it, what else can your really do with it?

Well this is where Asterpix comes in and shows us the next generation of online. A startup from the Bay Area, whom I had the good fortune of meeting in their offices a few weeks ago, showed me around their offering. The quickest and easiet way to describe what they do is to think of a webpage. I can give you a URL to a webpage and say "look at this, but check out the paragraph about two thirds down". The web has given us the ability to bookmark deep into the page (assuming the page author has set anchors). So the next time I send you the link, you are getting straight to the place I want you to look at.

Asterpix allows you to do this with video. You can watch videos from any of the major video sites (YouTube, MySpace etc) and literally bookmark, or define a hot spot within a video, and then point people specifically to that point.

You do this through their website (http://www.asterpix.com/) using their Flash applet. You can do a lot more than just produce a live bookmark. For example you can also leave notes within the video at specific points. So when someone is watching it, a hot spot will appear in the video alerting you to the fact a note or bookmark exists.

Not only is this very cool, but bloody useful at the same time. There are a number of times I have sent someone a video only to prefix it with a statement, "wait until they do blah blah". Now I can throw them straight to the point I want them to see!

Play now @ http://www.asterpix.com/


 

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