Dave.TV Video Widget – A Review

Dave.TV is a video sharing community that allows users to browse, upload, and share videos.  Users create channels of videos, which can then be embedded on blogs or personal profile pages.

The Dave.TV widget is Flash-based and therefore compatible with most of the major online communities such as MySpace, Friendster, and Blogger, and can be grabbed by any visitor to the site – logged in or not.

Applications & Opportunity

It is been well documented that there are more than 100 funded video sharing communities out there.  Clearly Dave.TV is playing in a very crowded space, with more big names entering the fray every day.

I think it’s safe to say that the chances of Dave.TV somehow supplanting companies like YouTube, Google Video, Aol Uncut, and now, MSN Soapbox as the preferred destination site for folks sharing videos are nil.

However, Grouper was able to battle its way to a favorable exit by virtue of its strong technology platform.  It would appear that Dave.TV is trying to follow a similar path.

Configuration

While YouTube has chosen a widget configuration route that puts ease of use above all else, Dave.TV has opted instead for allowing the publisher the chance to customize the video player’s skin.

The ramifications of this are that instead of being able to grab the widget code directly from the video page like you can on YouTube, visitors to Dave.TV need to click the “embed” link, then choose from 12 custom skins or 18 colors before generating the embed code.

Despite the somewhat more involved process, the Dave.TV widget configuration tool is flawless.  It’s super easy to choose a personalized skin, and an ajaxy preview tool shows you exactly what it will look like.  They really did a nice job with this tool.

Testing

I had no problems implementing the Dave.TV widget on MySpace.  I did have some problems including the widget in a TypePad or Blogger post - it kept showijng up in the footer or sidebar, as opposed to the body of the post.

The player itself is gorgeous.  Rolling your mouse over the player displays a number of features including email to a friend, flag, more media info, and my favorite, a “get this channel” option which displays the widget code right in the player.

Editorial

As this is a widget blog, I’ll start with the good news.  Dave.TV has flawlessly executed its widget for the MySpace community (though less so for Blogger and Typepad).  It’s easy to grab, easy to customize, and looks really good on the page.  More importantly, Dave.TV nailed the viral aspects. Their player is well branded without being taking the focus away from the media, and their display of the embed code right in the player is perfectly executed.

The bad news, of course, is that they’re up against a daunting array of competitors with absurdly deep pockets.

Taking a peek at Dave.TV’s “about” section should give you peak of what they’re up to.

"DAVE.TV exists for the Purpose of ‘Facilitating the Connection between Producers and Consumers of Digital Media in a way that benefits everyone.;  Our unique Cross-Platform Digital Content Ecosystem allows for multiple devices to connect to our next-generation broadcasting network that uses Internet Protocol (IP) to deliver digital media to televisions, PCs, and other home, portable and mobile entertainment appliances and devices using broadband connectivity.”

This is not touchy-feely, community site language here.  This company is attempting to present itself as a technically superior platform, which like Grouper, could bring significant value to the right buyer.

Dave.TV’s perfectly executed widget (at least for MySpace) is a nice extension of this strategy.  Who knows how many new users are left out there to be wooed away from YouTube.  That’s not really the point.  The point, I think, is to show anybody doing due diligence that this is a technically superior platform, in all aspects.

Companies looking to build a widget, especially a video widget, could do a lot worse than modeling theirs off of Dave.TV’s.

Click through to leave your own review of the Dave.TV video widget.

Comments

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