Rather than innovate, when you have a site which is head and
shoulders above all the competition, both in terms of usability and
traffic, is it better to just copy them and be done with it?
Regular visitors to online video sharing service Revver will
notice
some major changes now active on the site.
Now, with its new
layout and features, Revver is looking more like the most
popular video site, YouTube
(but with less bold colors), which is currently in
the process of being redesigned.
Making much better use of space, the Revver website manages to
pack
more videos and more information onto the homepage while maintaining a
simple and uncluttered arrangement.
Making Revver Easier To Use
Alex Black, community manager at Revver stated:
“We just launched the newest version of Revver.com,
and it includes some big improvements and rad new features,”“…Less empty space,
more
videos, and the addition of categories and featured sections make it a
lot easier to find and enjoy the best of Revver.”
What visitors will not immediately notice is that the entire
site is now built on Django,
after being completely rewritten by developers, which should help make
the service faster and more reliable.
On the Revver homepage, visitors will now see multiple widgets
that
display top videos such as the ‘Most Watched’ and ‘Editor’s Picks.’ The
new categories
page resembles this same look, except for the fact that the
widgets denote each category.
At the new video
browse page,
users will find the ability to organize video listings by most-watched,
highest rated, and most commented videos, as well as by date range.
In the user dashboard,
visual changes are also present as well as new features. Users can now
track their videos by the status throughout the upload and review, use
a new one-click video editing feature, as well as make use of the new
user-to-user messaging system.
YouTube Like Video Responses
Similar to YouTube, Revver now also features video responses,
which allow anyone to upload and post a new video response or turn an
existing user video into a response. “We haven’t added
moderation to
responses yet, but it’s coming, and spammers beware
— each video can
only be a response to ONE other video.”
In addition to all of this, Revver has even taken the time to
offer
more to advertisers also, as the site now “offers more opportunities to
engage with Revver’s diverse creative and user
communities.”
With
Revver 2.0, advertisers can now sponsor video collections such as ‘Most
Watched’ or even purchase banner ads on category landing pages (such as
Sports) and on the landing pages of content creators.
Kevin Wells, CEO of Revver said:
“With enhanced discovery, viewing, and community-building
features, Revver.com
2.0 makes it even easier for content creators and advertisers to engage
audiences online,”“This release
extends our commitment to creating the best possible platform for
sharing and monetizing high-quality videos effectively.”
Conclusions
Revver has a lot of new changes, and is now visually much
better looking than both the current
YouTube
look and the upcoming redesign.
Although the two services now have much
more in common, Revver is much easier on the eyes and has also long
offered better benefits in terms of revenue potential for publishers.
What do you think of Revver
2.0? Is the design too much like YouTube or is this a basic layout to
be expected from video services now?
Michael Garrett is a contributing author discussing the social networking world, his work can be found on Profy.com
