Online video chaos causing frustration

Weshow introduces human web filters

Ian Williams, vnunet.com 13 Aug 2007

The massive explosion in user generated content is creating frustration for internet users, according to a recent survey from Kelton Research commissioned by online video site Weshow.

With hundreds of thousands of new videos up-loaded each day the online video vaults are becoming overcrowded and chaotic, the research concluded.

The survey suggests that 96 per cent of US surfers do not find the video they are looking for in their initial search, a trend that is thought to be replicated by searchers around the world.

Further, over 61 per cent of respondents said they felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of video content available, and 46 per cent of these people choose not to watch online videos because they dread the task of trawling through the multitude of search results.

Results showed that while a hardened internet user may persevere with the maze of search results to find the video they require, the majority of light users often give up their search out of frustration.

One of the major issues, aside from the sheer volume of content, is that sites hosting these videos rely on automated computer systems to collate content and provide search results.

This problem is lessened to some by some degree through the improved use of tags and automated aggregator systems, but if these are not used correctly they can sometimes make matters worse.

Ultimately it comes down to a discerning human eye to provide an element of quality control and there are no guarantees as to the entertainment or interest value of each video.

There is also no way of ensuring that this content is labelled correctly, which means search engines return many irrelevant results.

WeShow reckons the only sure way of offering relevant content is to 'humanise' digital viewing by employing a group of people to source and classify the footage it provides.

To that end it currently employs around 40 regional and international 'WeShow Surfers' who trawl through over 20 repositories to provide video for the target audience of each of the site's channels.

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