Welcome to Mystic Liquid- We are the only full service website management company in Pennsylvania. We are based in the Scranton, PA area and pride ourselves on helping small businesses get the most out of their online presence. Our services range from 
Believe Everything You See. Video is Here.
The future of Web 2.0 is in video. The success of video aggregators like YouTube is only the tip of the iceberg. More and more blogs are taking notice and using this trend to monetize their websites. One of my personal favorite blogs, 1938 Media, uses videos almost exclusively in his posts instead of content and you know what, it works. Loren’s built himself a nice little following by creating a niche in the blogosphere through his innovative use of video.
Personally, I love it when a website mixes a combination content and video successfully. The page contains enough content to inform the visitors and feed those spiders while the video does all the work in grabbing the attention of the user in the first place.
Don’t be shocked when you start to see more of our posts using videos. We are also starting to weave into our small business website design with some positive results so far. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.
The problem so many designers run into with video is finding the correct format to use. Here are some of the more popular plugins, players and video formats commonly used as a quick refresher course in video implementation.
· Flash - From everything I’ve seen, read, and used, I can honestly say that Flash is by far and away the most popular format for videos to go along with the widest computer support. The major problem with using Flash, well one of the major problems, is that Flash isn’t much value to the mobile market. Hopefully, we will see some vast improvements on that front.
· QuickTime - This video app made by Apple is one the cleanest players you’ll find. Anyone who owns an iPod knows about QuickTime. It used to be a poor choose to view videos with if you were running a Windows based PC but over the last year or two, that has improved by leaps and bounds.
· Real media – This dinosaur used to be extremely popular back in the day because of its compression and cross-platform capability but the increased developments in the other players left Real Media players behind the times. The one plus is that it is supported through some of the popular mobile devices.
· Windows media – Everyone who owns a Windows computer has used a Windows media player at one point or another. I really don’t recommend using it just because of compatibility issues. It isn’t the most user friendly video player going.
· Streaming video – Of all the video formats I mentioned, this may be the easiest to use. The only thing you really need is a camera. The only drawback is you need to get yourself a streaming media server as well as a decent understanding of firewalls and ports. Other than that, it’s a snap to use.
What do you use or recommend when you use video on your website? Leave a comment with any suggestions you have.