Blogger in Draft and Video Uploads
Blogger has recently announced the release of a new development environment known as Blogger in Draft, which will provide curious users with access to tools and features that aren’t quite ready for prime time.
The inaugural release is Video Uploading. Just as Blogspot and Blogger users are currently able to upload photos directly to their Picasa Web account via the blog posting page, so can they now to do the same with video - but only from Blogger in Draft. Uploaded videos are submitted automatically to Google Video, where they are associated with the same Google account.
Realistically this tool only streamlines the video embedding process, it does not create an option that wasn’t there before. However previously users would have to go to Google Video, complete the upload form and submit the video, select the code snippet to embed the video, go to Blogger and create a new post and then paste in the snippet. That you will be able to do all this directly from the post page makes things much quicker.
At the same time it does not resolve the more fundamental issue of bandwidth speed that makes work with digital video very time consuming for most people - and impossible for those still on dial-up. The upload process either requires a substantial pipe to push up the video in the first place, or an equally substantial amount of patience on the part of the user. Until high-speed internet is more widespread, and high speed infrastructures are more prevalent, I suspect the uploading of video will remain isolated to relatively small pockets of users.
The enhancement of global high-speed internet infrastructures will be a natural progression I suspect - and in Australia is becoming a political issue that the pollies want to look proactive about - however it is also a cost-intensive one that is more than likely still a ways off on the horizon. Nonetheless the inclusion of a video upload feature in Blogger makes a whole lot of sense and is good to see on the table.
It also represents a wonderful opportunity for the folks at Google to increase the usage of Google Video, given it has been all but eclipsed by the likes of YouTube.
For more information on Blogger in Draft or video uploads, please visit the official Blogger in Draft blog.
Reference:
- “Updates About Video Upload“, Blogger in Draft, 20 June 2006
