The mobile video-sharing field just got a little more crowded. Of course there’s Vine and Instagram’s new video feature and Rounds more for video chat. But now there’s MixBit from the creators of YouTube. It’s “all about mixing and editing video,” the New York Times reports. The app and the site (MixBit.com) are “aimed at making it easy to clip and stitch together snippets of video. Simple tools built into the app allow users to edit each 16-second clip [1 second more than Instagram’s clips] combine up to 256 clips into an hour-long video,” and share on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or MixBit.com, the Times adds. The other thing that really sets MixBit apart from other video-sharing apps is that it isn’t just about editing and sharing one’s own video. It’s every bit as much about remixing. “The MixBit site allows anyone to snip and remix any publicly shared video content,” according to the Times. Sounds like MixBit aims to be (short form) remixing central. Young media makers kids will probably love to play with this tool and Web site.
All of those factors and features make this app sound like it’ll be a hit. But there’s one other differentiating factor that could slow that down. For now, videos and remixes you post are “totally anonymous and communal. Users cannot post their videos under a name, and they cannot comment on each other’s work,” the Times says. (Tagging and location are present, though, according to TheNextWeb.com.) Apparently, MixBit’s creators (and YouTube founders) Chad Hurley and Steven Chen feel this content- rather than user-focused approach will build community fast, which seems to be a key goal. I’m not so sure. I agree with Times reporter Vindu Goel that sharing one’s own creations for friends’ comments is pretty potent community-building fuel. Could it be that keeping it anonymous for now leaves out the complicating COPPA children’s privacy law factor? It could be a challenge to factor that in later. So, as Chad Hurley told Goel, watching how community develops without those features (to be added later) will be interesting. Also interesting is that a product whose investors include Google launched for iPhones only (an Android version’s reportedly coming in a few weeks).
Related links
- “Social media ore like medieval than mass media: Example”
- “Instagram adds video”
- “Details, context on Rounds, Vine & other video-sharing apps”
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