Video Killed The Internet Star?

There are some things in life that just seem better in their "classic" state.  Take Coca-Cola for example.  They've tried to reinvent the product dozens of times.  We've seen Diet Coke, Caffeine Free Coke, Cherry Coke, Coca-Cola with Lemon, Vanilla, even Raspberry.  And these were all flavors that the Coca-Cola Company manufactured and sold themselves, not knock-offs.  Remember "New Coke"?  Neither do I.  Well OK, I suppose some folks drank it but the backlash Coca Cola caught from generations of customers brought up on Coke Classic was too much, so they went back to the old recipe.  The point is, there just isn't anything quite as successful as the original Coke "classic" and there probably never will be.  You can probably think of a few other analogies but in general, what folks would call "timeless" products, are definitely few and far between.

You might not think of the Internet as a "product" per se.  However, your favorite web site, like Coca-Cola in many ways, is very much a product.  At HotHardware (we're desperate to be your favorite by the way), our product is Tech news and detailed product evaluations "content".  Recently, as you may have noticed, we're "enhancing" and changing the product, as it were.  One of the major additions or changes we've made, to our little product called HotHardware, is our video channel.  Now, I'm not so delusional to think for a minute that our product here is as timeless and irreplaceable as Coca-Cola (though I wouldn't argue with you if you felt that way), so our line of thinking is that we need to continually improve the experience whenever possible.  Of course this means adding features and different types of new content as well.  That said, in the new age of internet video, there are obviously lots of ways to "do it right" and also more than a few not so right ways.

Back in 1979, the New Wave Rock group, the Buggles pioneered "Music Television" with one of the first music videos to appear on MTV,  aptly titled "Video Killed The Radio Star".  This was a nostalgic song that looked back on the early days of radio in a bitter-sweet observation perhaps that the new TV or video medium for music, though new and exciting in its own right, somehow trampled over radio and in the process, we left something valuable and irreplaceable behind.  I guess my years of seeing the internet in its infancy evolve to where it is today, are bleeding through somehow but it's with this song as a soundtrack of sorts that we've embarked on enhancing our HotHardware "product" for you, our ever-important and appreciated reader now also "viewer".  In other words, our perspective was to change and evolve our offering for you such that we're taking full advantage of this new more accessible medium of streaming digital video content, without sacrificing our product quality or the original "HotHardware Classic" content in any way.

Obviously this is a pretty lofty goal.  Our first order of business was to produce video content that was a notch above the static that you most definitely will find out there these days, with everybody and their brother piping in on YouTube or some of the newer social networking-based video content distribution services.  This meant a higher production quality goal wherever possible as well as topic/product selection and coverage that worked well on video.  Our second order of business was to provide you video "spotlights" as a supplemental offering to our original news and product evaluation content and not in replace of that original "product" we've been bringing you all these years.  We definitely didn't want to pull a "New Coke" on you since likely many of you wouldn't stick around long.

Regardless, as part of the creative vision for the site and also Chief Cook and Bottle-Washer, I stay awake late at night sometimes not just because there is too much to do and not enough hours in a day but also because I'm perpetually paranoid about bringing you the best stuff we can muster here with our relatively small but powerful team.  And with that in mind, I'll close with a few questions for you.  As computing and tech enthusiast, early adopters, gadget geeks and technophiles, is our new video channel working for you?  Our goal is more frequent releases of new videos but is that a good thing? What sort of coverage works for you on video and what doesn't?  What have you seen out there that you feel is the "good stuff" and what should we avoid like the plague?  What is your attention-span like?  Should we have quick two minute blasts or are longer, more detailed 5 - 7 minute showcases better?  And finally, and most importantly, does our HotHardware "product" convey well for you on video?  Marco will appreciate the 80s music reference here but as they say, video doesn't have to kill the internet star.