Viddling Around™

Google has announced that they now support linking to positions within videos. This is big. Of course, on the surface, it makes sharing video more convenient - i.e. sending someone to a specific point in time within a particular video, versus a raw link, and instructions on what to wait & watch for (good example: Last week’s video from the cameras on the solid rocket boosters of the shuttle launch - couple of really awesome moments, but you had to wade through many minutes of boredom to get to them).

What’s even more impactful with this news however is that it opens up a whole new application layer into the videos themselves. Imagine a mashup that takes you specific moments within a whole movie, or specific soundbites within a longer news story.

This removes a lot of the wasted overhead of editing streams down to contextual elements. Just take a look at YouTube, and how many duplicates there are of say, an Daily Show episode, along with several other clips of just the funnier moments (copyright infringement issues aside).