AOL Gets the Green Light to Stream Video
Webcams on Every PC
The second reason that this development is important is that it indicates that consumers are increasingly interested in communicating with one another visually. And there’s really nothing easier to use than IM so there is no learning curve associated with starting a video stream from any desktop computer with a video camera. According to some retail establishments, people walk in looking for a webcam because they have seen that their IM platform supports video streaming and they want to get started. "We’re extremely excited about the attention our products are receiving," admits Spencer Johnson, director of product marketing for the Logitech Video Business Unit. "We hope to expand the application of the technologies we have built for Yahoo! and MSN to include support for video in AOL’s next generation IM client, but regardless of who builds the capability into the AOL platform, we anticipate millions more people are about to discover value in having a webcam connected to the personal computer."
Once comfortable with seeing themselves on video from their homes and with friends, people will want to take their webcams to work and similarly enjoy the benefits of video communications in the business context.
Future Developments
Finally, consider the many other ways that IM and streaming media could intersect. In addition to launching personal live video streams from within a buddy list, video-enabling IM could lead to a new paradigm in program listing. What if, in addition to a list of people you know, the buddy list also reveals the state of assets on your favorite portals or servers?
In the future, we may see our IM applications become the monitoring and filtering console for live or on-demand assets of all kinds (streaming and static). I would like to have the option of using my buddy list notify me when a new file is added to an important repository, or to let me know when I have video mail waiting for me.
Are you using video IM yet? If not, what are you waiting for?