I don't need theme music, either. Just give me the text, people. Just give me the text. - Akiva Moskovitz

Exactly. Most of the time I don't even have sound on, so I get very little out of videos. Text and pictures is what I want. - Jordan Hofker

Jordan, good point. I usually have music playing. So they expect me to turn down my music so I can hear them deliver news wrapped in their personalities? The nerve of some people! - Akiva Moskovitz

I agree completely. It drives me nuts when article links bring me to video or audio presentations that lack text. - RAPatton

Yes, lolcat pictures. - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

Who wants to found a company that takes videos and automatically creates transcripts of them? I have no idea how that would even work but I want to make money off of it. Who's with me?! - Akiva Moskovitz

There are services that will do that. I have looked into it for the podcast, but they are still pretty pricey. - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

That's it then! Time to undercut the competition by providing an inferior product! How could this idea possibly go wrong? Who's with me?! - Akiva Moskovitz

Akiva, there are companies out there like that. - Rochelle

This also reminds me of another failure with video: it's not indexable. - Akiva Moskovitz

There's also the annoying issue with video of not having the right player, plugin, updated version of blah blah blah. And it buffers or the sound is poor quality. I prefer words. - Rochelle

Linux people are pretty much screwed when it comes to most video sharing formats. - Matthew DeVries

If a video has more than 7 seconds of introduction, they've lost me. But the real nails on the chalkboard aspect of watching videos, which seems especially prevalent in screencasts, are the constant ums, uhs, ahs, and other verbal filler from people who clearly aren't comfortable conveying ideas orally. If you can't finish a sentence without using um to join two clauses together, or at least take the time to edit those pauses out, maybe podcasting or videocasting isn't your thing. - Mark Trapp

I'm with you. I watch at most 1-2 web videos a week. Video is modal, I want text and images I can scan and either dig into or discard but make the choice to do either in a second. - Sparky

You know, it's amazing how much lip service has been paid to indexing video and audio, but those services never really took off. You really have to rely on the tags and descriptions of a video. - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

I feel the same way (despite the fact that increase in internet video helps my company). Its annoying, invasive and incomplete and a total waste of my time. - jcunwired

Mark, I agree. I'm down with screencasts (and have actually seen some really good ones) but if you can't get through it without stammering, then you need to write a script and stick with it. - Akiva Moskovitz

U just saying this because you are Camera SHY - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Well, that, too! - Akiva Moskovitz

On the issue of indexation, the speculation is that Google's voice recognition, that we've seen in Goog 411 and with lesser success in Google Voicemail transcription, is to be tasked with parsing video for its textual content. It's a boon to the hearing impaired and could provide the grumpier among us with an alternative to viewing content. - Christopher Harley

this is interesting to me as I'm trying to build up my own video show from the ground upwards. I guess some of it will depend on a few factors such as what they're covering (in my case, video gaming), what method of consumption they're aiming for (web, portable media devices, etc), when and where they're consuming. - alphaxion

But video is a more effective way to force feed you commercials with your news. Which is why it's becoming prevalent. - Kevin Pedraja

It's something that Joe Blogger with no budget can't necessarily do. Getting a talking head to look like a proper talking head isn't totally easy and often requires money for studio gear. Making a talking head requires both writing and ability to not stutter on camera. Hosting it without dumping it on youtube is expensive. Etc. So it's a secret way to stiff it to the smaller media properties. - Wirehead

You don't need high quality equipment to produce a video, there's nothing wrong with using YouTube as the delivery vehicle (or any of the other free to low-cost video providers), and being able to clearly convey your ideas to an audience doesn't cost money. Take, for example, Matt Cutts: while he works for Google, he's using a regular Flip camera and hosting the videos on YouTube for his web series. The problem is that most people who use video as an alternative to writing are doing so not because their usage of the media is especially able, but because it ostensibly takes less work than writing. If I can sit in front of a microphone for just 10 minutes, that's infinitely easier than writing and proof-reading a 400 word blog post. - Mark Trapp

I sometimes wonder if the inherent problems with video - that it's not indexable, that there are no automatic transcripts - are exploited by some people. Fringe wackos are more likely than the mainstream to post links to videos rather than text pages, IME. - Andrew C

Automatic transcription will come to the web soon. It's already possible on pro editing software to search video by words spoken within it. - Martin Bryant from iPhone

@mark trapp exactly. I made my own green screen for less than £10 and I use consumer equipment (macbook, canon HF100, final cut express, samson C03U, a few desk lights, grand total = £1650 ish). Tho, I do take the time to write a script so I'm not umming and ahhing. The two most time consuming aspects are the writing and the video editing. - alphaxion

I'm not a video person. If I can't skim it, I don't look at it. - Mike Reynolds

+1 Mike - Tyson Key

Thank You, Akiva. You said something out loud that has been bugging me. - Kamilah Gill

Same here - I'm not generally a fan of video. Too much time. Much easier to read. - Hutch Carpenter

I think this thread is depressing me. - Eric @ CSTechcast.com from iPod

I also do not want video. I think my attention span is too short. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

Yeah, I like to read it too. I hate those popup ads that make you wait for the content. Die. - Rick Cogley