Online video is growing all the time, both in terms of popularity and frequency. Which is all good for the sector.
However, navigating the breadth of choice now out there and filtering the available content is getting harder as a result. Enter Magma, which acts like a Billboard Hot 100 for online video.
Online Video Growth
Online video has grown, and continues to grow, in popularity and breadth of content. The choice of sites, portals, content, and video clips now available is breathtaking.
There are the long-form video destinations such as Hulu and the BBC iPlayer, and short-form video factories such as YouTube and Dailymotion. Between all of them the range of content available to your average viewer is simply astonishing. It would take years to watch it all.
Online Video Filter
As it gets harder for the discerning Internet user to filter out the chaff and only watch the wheat, ways of doing the filtering are going to become more and more important.
There are already ways of doing this. Our sister site, Web TV Hub offers a daily dose of the most timely and viral videos doing the rounds. Then there is Digg, which shows which videos are creating enough of a buzz to get featured on the site. Then there is, of course, word of mouth.
Magma – Online Video Charts
is a new video portal that has been in private beta for the last few months. But this week has seen it opened up to the public for the first time.
Magma acts as a filter for online video from all across the Web. It organizes videos into charts based on the number of views, comments, related videos, and social media activity each receives.
You can see a Billboard-style Hot 100 from all corners of the Web or view the top videos on a number of different sites, including YouTube, Hulu, Facebook, and Twitter.
Magma – Other Features
If you sign up for a user account then there are additional features. Everyone has their own channel which they can add videos to, and you can see what other people are adding to theirs, adding a good sense of community.social networking to the whole thing.
Magma uses video embeds to enable you to watch the videos right from the site itself. Meaning you haven’t got to follow links to watch recommended content as you do with other social networking sites.
Conclusions
Magma is a brilliant yet simple idea which should aid most people’s video viewing habits. The one word of warning is how addictive it is – you’re suddenly faced with a mountain of content you know other people are enjoying. And that begs you to want to watch it too.
