Blinkx and Usability
Blinkx has serious usability issues I think, which is a major obstacle to getting more eyeballs from the vast pool of online users. Especially at this point when Google is not really ahead of video search technology yet. Honestly, I only use Blinkx if I am very very desperate (or if I want to check out how things are going on at the site from a technological point of view). And I do not know anybody in my network (non-representative, admittedly) that uses Blinkx (maybe they’ve heard of the site).
Some of the things I personally find problematic are as follows:
- cluttered front page: many tiny video screens jumping up and down. Stop the motion, please.
- lack of social data to navigate my search: no information on most viewed, rated, etc. No web 2.0 to put it bluntly. Google has learned from this and bought up YouTube. So why is Blinkx turning a blind eye? I can sort by relevance and date, but that’s not enough any more. I want to see what others have appreciated too.
- linking issues: how could I share the videos through links (no, just emailing the video is not satisfactory for me, and videos shown through Blinkx player are not very user-friendly in this respect)
- revenue sharing model: going for a 50-50% percentage is not really competitive these days when several video sites offer more (most notably YouTube)
- search visibility: if I make generic video searches in Google (where else? about 60% of users use Google) I do not get Blinkx hits in top results. Maybe I missed something? Not even in paid search. For a term ‘funny videos’ I can see various ads (US geotargeting), including of course YouTube ads:
Comedy Videos on YouTube
www.youtube.com Watch and rate the funniest videos or upload your own.
but not Blinkx. Let’s try ‘howto videos’. Again, no Blinkx, but there is a YouTube ad, amongst others:
How To Videos
www.youtube.com Instructions, training, DIY mishaps & more - watch it all on YouTube
The same YouTube sponsored link appears for ’speech to text video’ by the way. If video search and social networking sites, or any sites providing videos (pretty much growing number) want to capture users through relevant search terms, they could find search engine ads very cost-effective. But only a handful of sites are applying this tactic. Why?
Blinkx is mostly known through PR news, interviews with the founder or word of mouth: is it enough in today’s video search competition? I wonder what future tactics Blinkx is planning (besides improving its technology).