Video with Annotations - Mojiti vs. Viddler

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Discussion of comparisons between online video services Mojiti and Viddler.

Background

Mojiti and Viddler are two services which provide the ability to take videos which are online to the next level of interactively - the ability to annotate or add words directly to the video at specific time points during the feature.  Each has a different approach which, in turn, makes them useful in different areas.

Mojiti, which I recently introduced on Profy, takes the use of annotation for the purposes of translation or online notes.  The notes pop up and stay up at exactly the point the author wishes them to be, much like subtitles - though the comments could also be made by others and the wording can be pretty much whatever you want it to be (good or bad).

Mojiti is not a host provider but rather piggy-backs on other providers which host the videos.  While the list pretty much included the usual suspects such as YouTube or Google Video, recently they have done an excellent job of upgrading their system to include many other providers such as Dailymotion (one of my favorite video hosting providers). 

The interface and options for how the popup will look has also improved much lately so if you had a look before, take another glimpse now and you’ll be impressed.

Viddler takes annotation from another perspective. They do the full hosting job which will put it directly in competition with the big boys such as YouTube.  Why would you want to do this?  Well, at the moment Viddler is the ONLY video provider I’m aware of which TRULY streams your hosted online video.  That means if you have a three minute video, you can slide the slider along to the 2 minute, 45 second mark WITHOUT WAITING FOR THE WHOLE VIDEO TO DOWNLOAD.  This is truly amazing. 

But the real point of the service is the annotation.  Rather than people commenting on the WHOLE video, Viddler allows you or your Viddler registered guests to comment at specific points in the video.  This brings commenting to a whole new level since you could as “What are you holding there” or “Who are you pointing to?” or “See that guy in the green shirt passing behind, that’s my uncle” or whatever.  You just can’t do that on any other service.

Naturally, Viddler continues with the social networking side by “adding friends” which simply helps in the spreading of the videos.

Conclusion

There really is no winner in this comparison.  If you would like to do translation, Mojiti is still the best.  If you want people to interact with you and comment on your videos OR want to add comments all over yourself with sweet streaming ability to boot, Viddler is your best choice.  Just be warned both services will pop in advertisements along the way for OTHER videos or services you may or may not endorse.  Such is the life of a “free” service.

This article was written exclusively for Profy.com by Technology Evangelist, Presenter and Consultant Robert Sanzalone.