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badgerdav... badgerdav...
 
M$3 December 20, 2008 12:34 AM

What factors affect your decision to watch videos online?

What types of online video do you tend to watch? What is it about a video that will make you want to click on it? How do you find videos to watch online, or do they find you?
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edd edd
 
 December 20, 2008 12:42 AM
Whether or not it is on my personal list of interesting topics is generally the first question I ask to myself. Second, I look and see whether or not whoever posted it has written extreme political bias into the video tags, title, or description (I won't watch those -- ahem, Videosift). Third, I look at how long it is (if it says), and consider to myself whether or not I want to spend an hour watching a video titled "snake eats deer" just for the one moment the snake swallows the deer.

Above all, just about anything that says "Olbermann", "Chris Matthews", or "Bill Maher", is top priority for me to ignore completely. Listening to those hotheads is like spending hours in a Mexican baño just for the glorious smell.


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mskadu mskadu
 
December 20, 2008 12:37 AM
Quality - first of the content and second of the video.

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harrisonpo... harrisonpo...
 
December 20, 2008 12:37 AM
First and foremost the thumbnail. I am quite impulsive and like to click on things.

If I am on Youtube, I tend to notice the view count.

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phillramey phillramey
 
December 20, 2008 12:37 AM
For my music blog, I have a large pool of users on the various video sites that I subscribe to and browse through their recently posted videos periodically. As far as non-music videos go, I typically find them on blogs that I enjoy reading or by having them sent/recommended to me by friends.

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harrisonpo... harrisonpo...
 
December 20, 2008 12:41 AM
link to blog please

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phillramey phillramey
 
December 20, 2008 12:43 AM
My blog is over at http://www.thephiller.com

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bugsy bugsy
 
December 20, 2008 12:42 AM
My friends are the main factor. They have to pull me by the sleeve a couple of times until I actually click that damned link!

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toddgilmor... toddgilmor...
 
December 20, 2008 12:44 AM
Nobody finds a video, the New World Order directs us a.k.a. social media.

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jnousis jnousis
 
December 20, 2008 12:46 AM
I usually watch tutorial videos related to anything that I want to find out more information about.

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coocoofory... coocoofory...
 
December 20, 2008 12:49 AM
I find ones that are going to be silly, and make me laugh. I tend to not watch ones that are used advertising a website, with watermarks and ad's throughout the video. I don't mind if the subscription area shows promotes a website, but I don't like it in the video itself.
Also proper tagging and keywords. If I want to look at puppies, I really am looking for videos for puppies, if I get a black hatted video- stuffed with keyword and tags I don't watch.
Source(s):
www.youtube.com


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jeffhoard jeffhoard
 
December 20, 2008 12:52 AM
According to my YouTube Account, I've watched over 17,000 videos on YouTube alone, the greatest factor for what I watch depends on what is sitting in my subscriptions panel. I subscribe to over 100 accounts and will generally keep tab on their latest updates, generally I'm looking for something fresh that I can share.

When I am searching for a specific video, which I do a lot when I build historical pages here on Mahalo, I always prefer something professionally shot over an amateur user created video.
Source(s):
http://www.youtube.com/user/VidResearchLeague


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duane duane
 
December 20, 2008 12:59 AM
I don't; I can't skim videos.

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marcel m marcel m
 
December 20, 2008 01:06 AM
Well In My part of the world where we are the only sea board in the entire world without undersea broadband Cable the primkary concern is not choice of video. It is the bandwidth that can be able to support streaming video so far most connections here are narrow band even watching a yutube video is next to impossible.
But they say they will fix it early next year,so if they do I will naturally be checking out the latest releases on one of my favorite and authoritative movie sites IMDB after which i will try to check if it's on peer to peer networks like limewire and download it. If it's not, then I can pay for it on the itunes movie rental store watch them online one time or I burn them on DVD and watch and retain a copy.I guess I am in the category of people who don't wait for videos to find us,we go out and find them.
Source(s):
http://www.imdb.com
http://www.limewire.com
http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatson/movies.html


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procyin procyin
 
December 20, 2008 01:09 AM
Whatever I am "into" at the moment. That is, a certain topic or genre that has caught my interest and needs further exploring.

Just an example: I heard a prank call on Scott Mills' BBC Radio 1 show, and searched YouTube for recordings of more and spent a long time listening to them.

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rhynndavri... rhynndavri...
 
December 20, 2008 01:19 AM
I've noticed that I've started to watch most of my normal TV programs online, if that option is available. Primarily this is so I can time shift and watch my programing when I want to. However since I'm not a Nielson family I watch online as a way of promoting the shows I like. I'm not sure that numbers are being collected from programing online, but I figure eventually it will be.

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cmannering cmannering
 
December 20, 2008 01:22 AM
There really aren't many I must say, but I look for free videos, ones that stream without a lot of annoying buffering and I do appreciate higher quality videos so if the video is really small or doesn't have synced audio on the screen I won't waste my time. With the amount of available videos online these days it's not difficult to find a good one. Aol.com and Tv.com both have decent videos of older sitcoms and are free to watch online. As you know all the major cable stations also are offering full episodes for free, but they also break it up five times with commercials which deters me unless I have extra time to spare.

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phrees phrees
 
December 20, 2008 01:33 AM
I tend to look for quality, rarity or both.

I prefer to look for high definition videos as they often are better composed and have more structured themes as well as better technical quality. It shows that someone cares enough about their material to get the lighting and the encoding right.

Thumbnails are important. I tend to avoid solo "talking head" opinion pieces that don't have props or slides. It's really about preparation. If I can see from a thumbnail or from metadata that someone has made an effort I'm far more likely to watch.

I like viewing material that matches my less conventional interests. Butoh, artistic animations, lectures, philosophy, performance art and humorous engineering.

I'm also prone to bouts of nostalgia and occasionally will go clip hunting for ancient TV shows only to find that they're never as good as I remember.

All of the above . . . and cats being embarrassingly graceless.

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cobbly cobbly
 
December 20, 2008 03:00 AM
It is usually someone recommending it that gets me to click the play button, what keeps me watching though is content first and foremost, its got to be interesting or funny or cute, and then the quality of the video itself helps - it doesn't have to be high def but it does have to be watchable, and a shaky cam will always make me close the window. Also, depending on the video, the sound quality can be important too, I don't like having to turn the speakers all the way up to hear what they are saying.

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betsyfalls betsyfalls
 
December 20, 2008 03:41 AM
if the video has a good review i will try to to read it synopsis, that if i want the story ill check the video quality if it is good then i might watch it.

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garryvicto... garryvicto...
 
December 20, 2008 04:58 AM
The following are the three factors that affect my decision to watch videos online:
1. Is it interesting?
2. Is it educational?
3. Is it lengthy?

Interesting videos are those related to current events. If the video is humorous, it should have a sense. I also consider informative videos and most of all, videos should not be lengthy especially if it's boring.

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todesfee todesfee
 
December 20, 2008 09:27 AM
The video site has to be attractive, user friendly ( not confusing and easy navigation, clear functions). The video itself has to have a nice short but attractive description, and of course, should not have problems with the server where it's streaming from.

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druids druids
 
December 20, 2008 11:03 AM
I just want to watch something that is interesting and also if the site loads the video faster compare to other sites.

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phpcook phpcook
 
December 20, 2008 11:23 AM
just i watch funny cricket videos and tutorials

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mrnemo mrnemo
 
December 21, 2008 08:13 PM
Humorous videos, or highly creative videos are the trend. I am amazed when I see how some kid in his house can come up with things that humans have never considered before, and millions of people will watch it. I love that, if something is of serious quality, it WILL get noticed on youtube sooner or later. I also love reading the comments of horrible videos and videos that expose horrible mainstream news stories or slip-ups. The Internet community seems to reward talent and humiliate mediocrity, and I am glad to do my part. =) It is generally "rating" and "view count" or simply the advice of someone else that will get me to click on a video.

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