Video and text don't always go together, but that's not stopping video and audio microblogging service Seesmic from partnering with the distributed comment tool Disqus. Starting Wednesday, users of Disqus will get the added benefit of video commenting alongside the text entry field.
The option is turned off by default in Disqus, and must be enabled by whoever is administrating the account. We've gone ahead and turned it on in the Webware 100 winner pages, where we've been using Disqus since unveiling the 100 winners late last month. I've also added it to the end of this post, where you can add your own video comment after the break.
One small hiccup I've found is that Seesmic won't pull in your Disqus account information. You've got to be registered with the currently private alpha service to have it linked up with any sort of account. Otherwise you're limited to leaving an anonymous comment that can later be reclaimed when you get Seesmic access. Disqus founder Daniel Ha tells me the two companies are working on deeper integration for user authentication, but in the meantime anonymous recording is the easiest option for people who don't yet have Seesmic accounts.
I'm still not sold on the trend of video commenting. It's a bit gimmicky, and as others have said, it makes conversations difficult to parse. Ideally I'd like to see services like Seesmic partner with Jott to add a small transcript under the comment that would save me some time, and improve the experience for search engine bots, the deaf, and others who don't feel like watching and listening to what could be a simple sentence or two of thought.
Adding video comments to your Disqus account is as simple as clicking a check box. By default video comments are turned off until a Disqus admin turns them on.
(Credit: CNET Networks)... Read more
Group conversation service VoiceThread (review) has a great new feature called Video Doodling, which as you can guess, lets users draw on top of video clips on the fly. The technology, formally called a Telestrator, is best known for its usage in football games by John Madden, who pointed out things to look for to viewers at home with the aid of an onscreen drawing tool. VoiceThread takes a similar approach, and instead of overlaying drawings on video while it's playing, only lets you draw when paused.
In a sample clip sent to us (embedded below), creator Steve Muth doodled on an old Road Runner cartoon, and noted some of the minute drawing details one might miss while watching. Because VoiceThread works with a series of media items, others were able to tack on not only their comments, but also other related videos to the thread.
Besides video files that you've got bumping around your hard drive, you can also record using your Webcam and share and annotate the clip once it's been uploaded. Additionally, VoiceThread offers a Pro service for $29 a year that lets you start an unlimited amount of VoiceThreads, and upload images, documents, and video files of any size. It's actually pretty generous, and compared with something like ConceptShare and Octopz, some people might find this fits their modest collaborative needs for working on simple design and media projects. My only qualm after giving the service a spin this afternoon is that Flash video often doesn't provide the clearest stills, something which QuickTime does a better job at. However, given Flash 9's recent support of H.264, format-savvy users will be able to upload classy-looking video clips.
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