Interactive Video goes Mainstream

Interactivity at videos has become a more common quality at internet video sharing portals, a topic that has been an issue since the first post at this blog followed by an essay about interactive films. Already common features are clickable adverts and additional information like a menu to browse related videos as it is offered by Revver. Depending on the implemented properties now people can interact with a video to receive further information or to add video comments. In the following there are the newest developments.

Viddler has enabled commenting. Comments may become added by text or even as video comments. Tagging is another feature.

Friction.tv is a page for discussions. Answers and comments to video contributions may be done by text and video.

YouTube is offering Video Annotations, enabling comments and the addition of further information by texts and links. Annotations may be done even within a video to give viewers a choice to proceed or to link additional information. Another nice feature at YouTube now are Streams, something like screening rooms where people can watch together and chat.

Innovid is another service provider of interactive video solutions. They are offering a solution to enrich videos and to add further capacities like advertising and shopping.

By the way, interactivity is something that is expected to become implemented into television, too. This will go beyond messaging to a broadcast like it is already usual today. The timeline for the implementation of interactive tv features depends on country markets, where the UK is the most advanced. Generally interactive tv is awaited for 2010.