We first spotted Vzaar back in 2007, and since then it has come along nicely.

Who Needs the Vzaar Video Player?

Vzaar has big sellers like Toys R Us under its client list, as well as many individual eBay sellers. It has been designed with ecommerce in mind to use video to highlight products, although it can be used by a variety of businesses for things like tutorials, informative videos etc.

Compared to YouTube – Minimizes Visitor Leaks

When compared to the likes of YouTube, Vzaar prevents visitors leaking from your site. With YouTube videos:

• there are ads in the video
• if you click the video you are taken to the YouTube website with lots of distractions
• at the end of the video YouTube highlights related videos

If you are presenting a video of a product to potential buyers on your website, the last thing you want is for them to leak out of your sales funnel (i.e disappear off to YouTube or watch another video). To maximize the amount of people that buy the product you want to ensure they stay on your site and don’t get distracted. That’s one thing that the vZaar player is designed to do.

Compared to Vimeo, Blip.tv etc… – No Commercial Videos

The problem with a lot of free video hosting sites is that they have rules about the sorts of videos you can upload, and often commercial videos are not allowed. While you can get away with having commercial intent videos on video hosting sites like Vimeo and Blip.tv, they may in future ask you to pay or prevent you from uploading more videos. At worst they may even delete all your videos creating a real headache.

Vzaar Main Features & Competition?

Knowing that free video sharing sites are generally not suitable for hosting and providing video content for an ecommerce product, then using something like Vzaar is the route you will probably want to go down.

Competiton includes the likes of

• Brightcove,
• Viddler,
• EasyVideoPlayer with Amazon S3,
• Kaltura
• Ooyala.

Like Viddler, Vzaar has positioned itself as a relatively low cost introductory solution with the ability to scale to large sizes.

It is pretty easy to use and has the regular bells and whistles you would expect from such a service including

• easy embedding,
• easy uploading,
• batch uploading,
• listing in Google search,
• brandable video player, and
• detailed statistics.

Features that Set Vzaar Apart…

Among the cool and more unique features to Vzaar are:

• eBay Integration: Vzaar integrates pretty easily into eBay auctions and allows you to provide auction details from within Vzaar making adding videos to auctions a lot more manageable.
• Quick Replace: If you want to replace an existing video you can use their quick replace feature. This replaces the video seamlessly without any URL changes or the need to change the videos embedded on your site.
• Call to Action Link: Vzaar allows you to include your company name which links to your website in your videos. It also gives an option to provide a link at the end of the video. These can be set on a per video basis and give an opportunity to encourage the user to buy the product or take whatever action you want.
• MailChimp Email Capture: If you use Mail Chimp to handle your email subscribers then you can integrate it with Vzaar show an email signup form at the end of your video. It is a shame that other email subscription managers like Aweber are not included.
• Iphone App: You can manage your Vzaar account and your videos from your iPhone.

What’s Missing?

Overall Vzaar does the job well for what it intends, although there are a couple of features I would have liked to see:

Viral Embedding:

While you can embed your Vzaar videos on pretty much any web-page you like, there is not any code for visitors to use. For example, any YouTube user can get the embed for most videos and then embed that video on their own website, this does not seem to be possible with Vzaar.

This means that if someone found your video useful and wanted to post it on their own website then they wouldn’t be able to and you miss out on the potential additional exposure that would bring.

Competitors like Viddler do this. I suspect Vzaar has prevented this option so you don’t get competitors embedding your videos, but that seems pointless if your competitors would just end up sending you buyers through the video.

More Email Services:

It should be able to include an email signup form at the end of the video not just from MailChimp, but other email solutions like Aweber and Constant Contact.

EasyVideoPlayer (EVP) does this and is much more suitable for hardcore marketers, but is more expensive and lacks a hosting option (but it hooks in with Amazon S3 hosting very well and has instructions on how to do this). In comparison EVP might be a bit overkill for many eBay auctions and online retailers.

Split Testing:

Having split testing built in would be handy as this would allow you to test two videos against each other to see which produces more sales or desired actions.

Again competitor EasyVideoPlayer does this, but alternatively you could just use Google Website Optimizer with Vzaar with no problem.

Vzaar Pricing

Vzaar offers a free trial for 30 days which gives full access to their features and 5GB of bandwidth. Prices then start at $50 per month for 50GB of monthly bandwidth usage.

• Go to Vzaar Website

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Another way to boost your chances of getting a good price is by using a photo of the actual item rather than a stock image of the product weaned from the manufacturer’s site.

Prospective buyers don’t just want to read a description, they want to see exactly what they would be spending their money on since some sellers can be very vague with their words.

Picture Managers

For this reason, several services such as Auctiva, MyEasyPics, BiggerBids, and even eBay’s own Picture Manager have become profitable in offering indispensable tools to eBay sellers.

Now, with the popularity of online video rapidly growing, vzaar is aiming to take eBay auctions to the next level by allowing sellers to include short video ads (2-3 minutes maximum) of their items within listings… YouTube-style. 

London Based Start-Up

The London-based start-up, which was launched last September in the UK (March 2008 in US), claims to already have more than 5,000 sellers now using videos in their auction listings. At the end of every video, users will find information about the seller, such as his/her feedback rating as well as the amount of bidding time left on the auction. 

All videos use a Flash interface that can be embedded within other web pages (just like YouTube videos), and vzaar even keep visitors to its site updated with the most recent video advertisements uploaded for auctions.

Vzaar CEO Speaks

Ken Moss, CEO of vzaar said:

“Videos provide sellers with a distinct advantage in the competitive eBay market, but it has always been a challenge trying to add videos to listings,”

“Unlike other video solutions designed for entertainment, we built vzaar specifically for video commerce. Once buyers and sellers first see a video-enabled eBay listing, they want them for all listings.”

Pricing Details

For free, sellers can post up to 30 videos (2 minutes each) per month with a 1GB storage limit. The Plus ($10/mo) and Pro ($20/mo) service plans allow for up to 3,000 video uploads per month, 2GB storage and an increased 3-minute video time limit (Pro accounts only). 

The prices seem quite competitive though, considering that eBay charges $24.99 per month for 1GB of storage with its Picture Manager.

Vzaar has done a great job in keeping the service simple and even provides a wealth of help from FAQs to how-to guides and even tips on shooting video. 

The service proudly states on its homepage that it is not only eBay-compatible, but an eBay-approved video provider and developer, meaning safety and security.

Conclusions

With the widespread use of online video already established, eBay customers will surely clamour over the interactive element of being able to see an item from every angle, and that undoubtedly means that seller will provide what buyers hope to see. 

Those looking for a reliable, running car will be able to see (and hear) how well a car starts, and people buying electronics will be able to see an item power on and function before committing to buy it. Who knows… maybe video will help eBay get back some of the lustre it lost after the web 2.0 era struck the internet.

This article is based on a Profy post written by Michael Garrett.

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Now, YouTube has also been integrated in to Google Maps, and this has a much more commercial side to it, not on Google’s part, but for businesses in the US.

The feature was announced on the official Google Maps blog, and the example they used to showcase the new integration is a small bakery in San Francisco (as seen below).

Free Advertising

While that means nothing to me, sitting on the other side of the Atlantic, for the business concerned it means that they can now advertise their business on the Web for free simply by utilising YouTube and Google Maps.

As well as adverts, be they professionally made, or amateur efforts, businesses could also use the feature to offer virtual tours of their companies, or show off certain products.

Utilising Web Video

This feature, which at first glance may not seem very important, could help many small companies to build their business using the power of the Web.

No doubt it will also help cement Google and YouTube’s dominance of the Internet, but you can’t have everything.

The soap opera and soap moguls aim to wash Web 2.0 brains and clothes. The company is now going to offer Crescent Heights, an online sitcom/soap opera for your viewing pleasure.

The series is aimed at young surfers and ring-tone freaks and is about a recent college graduate (Ashley) who moves from Cheesehead country to LA. 

The 3 minute episodes are packed with drama with occasional and almost subliminal Tide appearances. I can just see a 4 car pileup in mid town with the drivers still catching these segments as the cop writes the ticket.

Still, we have to admire innovation even if it does come from dinosaur mentalities and methods I guess.

Slippery When Wet

I tell you, these soap people are a slippery bunch (pun intended) when it comes to turning us into square box zombies. It was only a matter of time before they devised a way to pack the cell phone with even more brain numbing numbness. 

According to Kevin Crociata, Tide’s associate marketing director: “We want to speak to people about more than just laundry.” I stumbled across this news in a NYT’s article by Bob Tedeschi, the story calls attention to the new wave of TV 1.0 metamorphosis into our Web mediums. 

According to Crociata the reaction so far has been great and as a test reveals its influence purchasing capabilities. Is that a slick way of saying: “You will buy soap?”

The Guiding Light

I had hoped I had escaped my Mom’s seemingly endless regurgitation of dramatic character interactions back in the 60’s – but evidently there is no end to the chain of drama. 

P&G started the soap opera disease back in 1955 (oddly the year I was born) with Guiding Light - TV’s longest running soap. Even back then subliminal or subtle symbolism played a role as the “light” in the title refers to candles - which made P&G a household word since 1837. 

I guess the guiding light for many traditional companies is simply to apply technology to tried and true methods. Crescent Heights is being produced by GoTV Networks for the die hard soap fans amongst you.

Soap 2015

I can’t help but conjure images of online TV series ripe with shameless advertising gimmicks. Imagine Ashley looking down at her Apple iPhone and seeing her boyfriend cheating on her via a friend’s podcast. 

Then she spills Maxwell House on her blouse from The Gap’s online store and quickly dashes some Shout on the stain and pours the Tide in the Kenmore washer. 

Meanwhile, the cell phone user has driven 3 miles at 60 MPH into the wrong neighbourhood – where some real drama might take place. Technology has come a long way, but there is a ring of “old world” in the melody of the mechanics. 

I can almost see an army of solar powered door to door salesmen lined up outside my eco-home now. Cell phone soap operas! Cell phone soap operas, I think I am already hooked – I used to like The Young and The Restless.

Phil Butler is a contributing author discussing the social networking world, his work can be found on Profy.com

A company called Vzaar launched a service yesterday that allows eBay users to upload videos to their listings for free. The company that is made up of ex-eBay employees is looking to leverage the existing user base that eBay has in order to help bolster its own service.

You can’t hold a good idea down so this was bound to happen eventually, though it is interesting that eBay are keeping it in the family so to speak. Will this put an end to misleading eBay ads? Probably not.

[Via NewTeeVee]

Cyprus, an island country in the Mediterranean, has launched a dedicated website focusing on promoting the country through online video.

The Cyprus government has unveiled cyprusonfilm.com, a site featuring videos in several languages which highlight the country’s attractions, history and way of life.

It’s another avenue for the already popular island country to drive tourism dollars to its fine shores.

A government spokesperson has suggested that in the future the site may hold televised interviews with the country’s President.

Innovative but Simple

Cyprus on Film is presented in a simple and easy to navigate interface. The videos are of an average quality when watching in full screen, but they are certainly watchable.

Personally, I think the Cypriots have under-done the tourism aspect of the site. Currently it’s more educational than anything – if the aim is to attract the attention of people abroad, as the Cyprus Government have stated, the site should feature accommodation, activities and so on. The existing content could easily be wrapped around these types of features.

Tourism & Online Video Potential

Tourism and online video is an area with massive potential. If I was taking a holiday to Europe I’d love to be able to check out online videos for potential destinations, with user contributed videos commenting about the destination, reviews of hotels etc.

Travelistic has gone part way into doing that by allowing users to upload videos of various holiday destinations and it works well. The site appears to be doing extremely well.

Other Online Video Travel Websites:

• GeoCast.tv
• Britain’s Best Breaks
• HotelView
• Philebrity.TV – Philadelphia Tourist Guide
• RooTV Lonely Planet Guide
• Concierge City Breaks
• Web 2.0 TV – World Cities

[Article Link]

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, or Woz as his friends call him, has thrown investment dollars towards a new internet video company run by a bunch of twenty-something university graduates.

Hotswap.com is a three month old company – with a 21 year old chairman – that has developed a high-definition-like video technology. The technology allows everyday users to upload high quality video to the internet more quickly and easily than is currently possible.

The founders of Hotswap see e-commerce as the pinnacle application for their technology – already the company is cornering the online automobile sales market, where it has won several contracts. Car sellers can showcase cars for sale using the video technology.

The company predicts that high-definition quality video will allow e-commerce to further develop and become more established. It’s also confident about its future, predicting it will become a multi-billion dollar enterprise.

[Via InformationWeek]

VideoCarLot.com is a company that has innovated and provided internet car dealers with rich media platform to sell their cars. VideoCarLot brings video to car listings creating a rich experience for customers looking to buy vehicles.

The patent pending technology brings full motion video with special effects to create a slideshow of moving images for a rich media effect. It also includes background music and voice or Text-to-Speech description of the vehicle, dealership, and contact information. Unfortunately the sample on the website was a bit buggy so needs some work but it’s still a nice idea and could be applied to a variety of ecommerce stores selling different products.

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