What's in a Video Player, Other than Great Content

We all hope to find great content in every online video view, be it professional grade or UGC (user generated content). The better the content the more entertaining, engaging, and effective. This is why online video viewing has skyrocketed in recent years making it one of the fastest growing mediums since email. This is why YouTube is the second largest search engine on the Information Super Highway. This is why 174 million US users watched an average of 2.4 hours of video (161 videos) each in the month of February according to comScore:

"U.S. Internet users watched 28.1 billion videos in February, with Google Sites ranking as the top video property with 11.9 billion videos, representing 42.5 percent of all videos viewed online. YouTube.com accounted for more than 99 percent of all videos viewed at the property." 

But there are so many factors that affect our viewing experience, many of which are either not top of mind or not understood by the average user. YouTube numbed the general viewing populous to poor quality, slow buffering, and delayed playback experiences but over time people have wised up and are now expecting higher quality video, smoother streaming, and rapidly loading players. And they deserve it. 

New Fliqz customer, Tony Hawk's Shred Or Die is a great example of the evolution of online playback. Watch this new vid of Tony at the Long Beach Grand Prix with friends Keanu Reeves, Adrien Brody, Zachary Levi, and Adam Corolla to see what we're talking about. Afterward, we'll discuss some of the behind the scenes functionality that makes this a great experience on top of the great content.

The elements behind this experience work seamlessly for many reasons but mainly because the Fliqz Player is not your typical embedded, compiled Flash application. In fact, it is not compiled at all. Using XML to control its look and feel as well as functionality, Fliqz gives the user unprecedented flexibility packaged in the smallest load size in the industry. We call on player resources only when they are needed rather than bundling them into a heavy embeddable object, keeping the player lightweight and limber. 

And this is just the tip of the iceberg regarding our new player functionality. Look for some exciting platform announcements right around the corner; complete XML control, Smart Tags, and a whole lot more.