Aral Balkan

I love YouTube as much as the next guy but I try not to visit these days as, when I do, I end up going off on all sorts of tangents (it's worse than TV, I tell you!) For my d.construct talk, I'm doing something video related and I came across blip.tv in my research. It's an interesting YouTube alternative.

Blip.tv doesn't have a public API but I've emailed them (as it says to do so on the site) to ask about accessing what they have currently. It would be cool if it supported upload like Flickr does for photos (worst case scenario: they apparently have an email interface.)

I also ran up against a bug when trying to access their upload page. It currently displays and error. The page says that they've been made aware of the problem so it should really be a temporary thing.

And, although I actually prefer their browse/search/playback system (i.e, how they implemented the core features of the site), I did notice a usability flaw in the sign-up page. It violates the Innocent Until Proven Guilty principle by carrying out form validation and showing a validation error the moment the form loads.

I'll respectfully direct the developers to my Flex 2 Quick Start on Validating Data. I would love to see someone create and release a JavaScript version of the validation technique that I describe there (or does one exist already perhaps?) Jeremy?

Comments

• Was thinking about doing a JS version, it's easier said then done - but if I find time!

  by David Stone on 2006-09-06 05:53:32

• Don't know if you have check this out already but I have been using imeem for a while now. Can be found here http://www.imeem.com The thing I like about it is I can upload all my video and all my photos in one place it also has a nice client to make it all easier, and no upload limts. This blip looks interesting but don't seem to offer anything more then youtube does.

  by Dave Jacks on 2006-09-06 08:55:38

• They Dave 1 (hah, you're Dave 1 from now on Stone man!) Let's talk tomorrow at dinner. Dave 2: Thanks for the link -- I'll check it out. Decided to do a photo-related mashup (well, evolved the idea into that) so I won't be using YouTube or blip.tv for it but imeem sounds interesting. You're right, blip doesn't seem to offer anything YouTube doesn't (except perhaps video upload via email.)

  by aral on 2006-09-06 14:09:26

• Hey Aral, Thanks for pointing out that bug! Just fixing now. I'm also fixing up the innocent until proven guilty problem :) Yours, Mike blip.tv

  by Mike on 2006-09-06 17:05:51

• Hey Aral, I just wanted to let you know that the bug you found is fixed in production, and that the innocent until proven guilty problem is fixed in development and scheduled for deployment in the next couple days. Thanks for both catches, and please let me know if you find anything else we should improve! Yours, Mike blip.tv

  by Mike on 2006-09-06 19:00:27

• Hi Mike, Great to hear! :)

  by aral on 2006-12-07 21:53:44

• i shit the bed again typical

  by thomas on 2006-12-06 14:30:17

• i like blip better than youtube because it can support higher quality videos...

  by quinn on 2007-10-10 17:38:31

• Whatever you know about computers, you're wrong about validation. Lots of people put fake stuff in long forms (because the forms are too long) only to find out after they've filled the whole thing in they have to do it all again because the fake e-mail or whatever didn't work, so warning first is a much better idea.

  by PJ on 2008-02-24 05:34:50