Adding video to your web site

Posted by Mark
Mark
Mark runs Interact, a web design business based in Cumbria.
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on 02 May 11 in Web design Cumbria

Recent developments including the increased penetration of Apple iPhones and iPads and the gradual introduction of HTML5 affect the way you might use video on the web.

Video is increasingly being used on web sites as a means of delivering product illustrations, demonstrations, tutorials, presentations, interviews and many more types of content. What is the best way to include video on your web site? And what are the technical issues at the moment?

Apple iPhones and iPads

Apple decided not to support Flash on iPhones and iPads. Flash has historically been the technology used to play video on web sites.  Apple argues that it is a proprietary technology (controlled by Adobe) and that “the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short” (source: open letter from Steve Jobs, April 2010 – see http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/. Apple’s hardline position with regard to Flash, has changed the landscape and web developers now have to decide to what extent they want to use Flash in the web sites they build.

HTML5

As Flash is coming under fire from Apple, the latest version of the web’s HTML language, HTML5, is gradually edging closer to adoption.  Although not yet a finished and approved standard, “as of March 2011 versions of browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari implement HTML5 to a large degree” – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_HTML5_and_Flash.

The issue here is that HTML5 introduces some new elements, including the "video" element. Web browsers that support this video element, can now play video without using Flash – although different web browsers may currently only support specific "codecs" (methods of coding video) and specific video file types.

For an incredibly detailed description of the HTML5 issues, see http://diveintohtml5.org/video.html.

Posting video on sharing sites like YouTube

YouTube is the main example of a service by which you can upload videos to a third-party site and have them hosted there.  YouTube allows you to embed videos in your own web site, using snippets of HTML code displayed along with your video on the YouTube site.

This is a great service and YouTube has become a massive repository of videos. In May 2010, the company announced that the number of videos watched on YouTube exceeded 2 billion per day!

With regard to the recent technical developments, whilst YouTube continues to deliver video as Flash, the videos are now also viewable on iPhones and iPads using a free app that ships with the device.

Hosting video on your own web site

An alternative to using YouTube is to host video on your own web site. Before the technical issues relating to Apple devices and HTML5, this would usually have been done by embedding a video player (i.e. some software) on the web site, converting your videos to Flash video, and using the player to play the Flash videos. This would leave your videos unplayable on iPhones and iPads.

Fortunately, there are now video players that can detect the technical capabilities of the web browser, and deliver either Flash or HTML5 video, depending on which technology the device can handle – see for example the JWPlayer – http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/.

YouTube versus hosting your own videos

For businesses, there are advantages and disadvantages of using YouTube as your video platform – see, for example, this article http://www.reelseo.com/video-marketing-strategy-hosted-versus-posted-video/  which covers various issues such as cost, video length, video size, control and audience reach.

The decision for small businesses as to whether to post video to sites like YouTube or to host video on your own site may boil down to what they think they can gain from YouTube in terms of driving traffic to their own site. And on the issue of control, businesses who decide to post videos to YouTube will have to decide whether they want to allow users to comment on the videos and whether to allow users to embed the videos on other sites.

Examples

Here are some recent examples of videos on clients’ sites.  These all use a new player capable of delivering either Flash or HTML5 video depending on your browser’s capabilities:

Tags: mobile web, web design, web video
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