The social network plans to capture the next wave of sharing with a new video feature for posting bite-sized movies. June 20, 2013 10:16 AM PDT (Credit: James Martin/CNET) Facebook-owned Instagram is adding video, bringing an entirely new dimension to camera captures shared across the popular social-networking service. Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom is showing off the new product to members of the media at its Menlo Park headquarters. With the release, Facebook finds itself in competition with Twitter-owned Vine, the iPhone and Android video application for weaving together itsy-bitsy clips into looping 6-second flicks that resemble animated GIFs. Vine has amassed 13 million registered users in just a few months and has become a preferred social media tool for celebrities and brands. The service's 6-second clips, however, don't play directly inside of Facebook, and social network users may prefer a video app that works with News Feed. Related posts Facebook's 'big idea' event: Join us Thursday (live blog) Microsoft Xbox One policy switch makes user forums explode More to watch on Apple TV Facebook launches photo comments Facebook experiences apparent outage Video is still a difficult medium for technologists to get right, Brian Blau, research director of consumer technologies at Gartner, told CNET. It's a fact evidenced by the existence of a number of small, no-name mobile applications for posting video clips, but also by the rise and fall of SocialCam and Viddy, two video-sharing applications that billed themselves as the "Instagram of video," grew their audiences on the back of Facebook, and then fell back into oblivion once the social network tweaked its formula to display fewer stories from these applications. Video, said Blau, is still not something that's easy enough for all of us to make with the tools we have today. "I think that's one of the reasons why Vine was successful, because they've reduced the amount of user interface that it takes to create an interesting video to something that's really simple and basic," he said. "But is it the only user interface that you can think of to ... make a simple video? The answer is no." But as far as consumer products launches go, Facebook has failed to capture the attention or imagination of its users with its most ambitious releases: Graph Search and Facebook Home. Even the bigger, bolder News Feed, arguably the most successful product launch this year, is still only available in extremely limited release, which suggests its internal business process around product launches is not refined enough to create success, Blau said. Company watchers will be tracking whether the video release from the Instagram team marks a departure from this lackluster cycle. This story is developing. Refresh for updates.
The social network plans to capture the next wave of sharing with a new video feature for posting bite-sized movies.
Facebook-owned Instagram is adding video, bringing an entirely new dimension to camera captures shared across the popular social-networking service.
Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom is showing off the new product to members of the media at its Menlo Park headquarters.
With the release, Facebook finds itself in competition with Twitter-owned Vine, the iPhone and Android video application for weaving together itsy-bitsy clips into looping 6-second flicks that resemble animated GIFs. Vine has amassed 13 million registered users in just a few months and has become a preferred social media tool for celebrities and brands. The service's 6-second clips, however, don't play directly inside of Facebook, and social network users may prefer a video app that works with News Feed.
Related posts
- Facebook's 'big idea' event: Join us Thursday (live blog)
- Microsoft Xbox One policy switch makes user forums explode
- More to watch on Apple TV
- Facebook launches photo comments
- Facebook experiences apparent outage
Video is still a difficult medium for technologists to get right, Brian Blau, research director of consumer technologies at Gartner, told CNET. It's a fact evidenced by the existence of a number of small, no-name mobile applications for posting video clips, but also by the rise and fall of SocialCam and Viddy, two video-sharing applications that billed themselves as the "Instagram of video," grew their audiences on the back of Facebook, and then fell back into oblivion once the social network tweaked its formula to display fewer stories from these applications.
Video, said Blau, is still not something that's easy enough for all of us to make with the tools we have today. "I think that's one of the reasons why Vine was successful, because they've reduced the amount of user interface that it takes to create an interesting video to something that's really simple and basic," he said. "But is it the only user interface that you can think of to ... make a simple video? The answer is no."
But as far as consumer products launches go, Facebook has failed to capture the attention or imagination of its users with its most ambitious releases: Graph Search and Facebook Home. Even the bigger, bolder News Feed, arguably the most successful product launch this year, is still only available in extremely limited release, which suggests its internal business process around product launches is not refined enough to create success, Blau said. Company watchers will be tracking whether the video release from the Instagram team marks a departure from this lackluster cycle.
This story is developing. Refresh for updates.
