↓ Mag.ma: the real-time video hub

There are probably more video sites on the web than tv networks, however just like cable operators most of the players and content are restricted by country.

On the web, very few sites can claim to have become tomorrow’s TV today: Youtube, Dailymotion, Vimeo…. as many others we’d love to see go universal like Hulu, Fancast or iPlayer are restricted for legal reasons (distributors want money money).

Video aggregators have also become extremely popular just like social network ones, and here it comes another “video entry point”… Mag.ma … however this is not just a site to share and vote videos. It’s more about discovering trends … in the so called and over-hyped “real-time”.

Mag.ma?

It’s mostly about finding current hot videos on-line. Its homepage shows from what they’ve identified as the “Must watch” (determined by data from popularity sites like Twitter or Reddit) to the most popular videos being watched on different video platforms, blogs, social networks, aggregators…. Hulu, Itunes, Youtube, CNN …. or Facebook, Digg and so on.

The first problem comes with this huge messy-wall homepage. There is so much content proposed, so many things to see (even if it’s clearly organised by site) that users can’t and won’t find videos easily. But that’s not what Mag.ma is for, right? We’ve typically blamed Youtube or Dailymotion for their awful user experience. No order… no problem, the users are here because they have time to spend, and probably feel like watching most of the videos shown on top.

The Mag.ma HP is a huge messy wall of sources

Obviously if Mag.ma wants to succeed in convincing us about its superpowerful video concentrating capabilities it has to offer us something else apart from those 100 video links for what’s hot on the web.

Where Mag.ma could make a difference is not only with its individual video pages with detailed info & stats but mostly with its social features. Building a global community around universal real-time-video-sharing is something sites like Youtube or Dailymotion are paying close attention to. Commenting, rating and social bookmarking is not enough, they need a solid community to be present and implicate themselves with the site and the content, not just millions of viewers who leave after a pair of funny cat videos.

Imagine a community who influences on the on-line video trends, where you can follow channels and people at the same time… a bit like if you mix twitter with Youtube and get the first video real-time network.

A profile in Mag.ma

However, Mag.ma is also quite far away from the ideal video-real-time-aggregator they intend to build as they’re still on beta mode. They could become a thread to big sites like Youtube or Dailymotion whose main goal & business (for now) has been to attract millions of users to get lost in their never-ending video libraries.

But until the Mag.ma community grows with thousands of active users (already around 2000 in this first stage) its value is limited to a simple real-time aggregation site. Don’t expect to search for videos like in Youtube because it’s not their goal.

Mag.ma should be launching in a few weeks…

Andrew Baron presenting Mag.ma

See you @ Rennes