Steve Rubel has a smart post up at the moment on Why Text Remains King of the Web. In it he reflects upon why Robert Scoble’s videos don’t tend to generate the buzz that they could and why text has it over video:
- It’s scannable
- Text does better with SEO
- Text is better to consume in the workplace
- Text is better on mobile devices
- Text is easier for distribution
While I think some of the above is slowly changing as technology catches up I think a lot of it rings true. It’s why I put most of my time into textual mediums rather than video.
I’ll add another point to what Steve’s written:
My Mum Doesn’t Get YouTube.
OK – perhaps Mum could work out YouTube if she put some time aside to learn – but recently I was talking to my family about online video and the blank stares that I got from my parents made me wonder if they’d ever watched a video online before. They’re not online all day every day but the majority of what they do is email and searching for articles on their subjects of interest with Google. They live in ‘text content land’ – right in the middle of it.
While many of us who are into the blogging and social media game have been doing video for years now and are completely at home with watching them, embedding them, sharing them with friends….. it can easy to forget that perhaps as a fairly tech savvy bunch we might be ahead of the field (or at least some of it).
Perhaps it is partly generational or perhaps it is about personality (or a mix of both) but I’d guess that there are a fairly significant proportion of the population who are either unsure how to view video, don’t know where to find video or have no interest in video and who are much more at home with ‘reading’.
I do see a future in online video (and think it’ll even increase in popularity in time, particularly with some demographics) and I’ll continue to use it on my own blogs – but I’m betting that text is also here to stay.
Yeh older people like to stick with their ways. They don’t want to find out how to use the new things on the web. But oh well.
Text is definately king because it is scannable. Though video is good to mix it up with.
I am getting a new theme in Feb and I think I will try to do a new video post every week.
Great post
Your Mum Might Not Get Video, But Your 16 Year Old Nephew Doesn’t Believe In Reading…
I think if there is anything I’ve learnt in recent times it is that everyone has there own preferences when it comes to consuming data. It isn’t hard to write an article AND create a video AND create a podcast. I daresay contrary to popular belief the message is NOT the medium.
Personally I always receive more views/subscriptions when it comes to the content I create on YouTube than I do with the written content presented on my blog. (Even when the written content is, in my opinion, of a better quality.)
Also I wouldn’t discount Google’s desire to incorporate YouTube videos into its search results. Especially monetized videos. It has a vested interested and having that trickle up.
This echoes the sentiment from my comment on your last video post. For me the biggest problem with video is it takes too much time. I’m very very busy and barely have time to scan for relevant content. It’s rarely worth it for me to launch a video and hope it will be useful.
Interesting isn’t really enough at this point.
Yes, text is here to stay as long as search engines matter!
One of the reasons I’ve not used video on my blog is because 66% of my traffic comes from search engines, and I would completely eliminate a video post from the search engines unless I were to accompany it with enough text for them to find it. I’ve toyed with the idea of including the full text along with the video.
Another reason I’ve not used video is that I don’t want to scare away my readers with my ugly mug!
Another great post. Thanks, Darren!
I totally agree. Text has too many convenient and important features on the web to ever be unimportant. Video has lots of it’s own uses, but it will never replace text.
Great post! I agree that text is here to stay. It’s been around for millions of years in one form or another and I agree that technology will not eliminate it. I do think that each business must provide a mixture of options for its audience. Some people relate to the written word better than they do to audio or video. Others, prefer moving pictures. I think they key is to be able to provide your target audience with a mixture of text, audio and video so all of their senses are stimulated and integrated into the experience of connecting with you. This gives them choices when it comes to consuming your content, and that’s a good thing.
Yes, text does win over videos. But videos can significantly enrich text as you can read, see and hear about the topic. This makes you remember more and consider the content to be more important.
Just recently YouTube came up in a family conversation and my mom said, “What’s a YouTube?” So, yep, I agree.
I think video has its place, and I do agree that the younger generation is more likely to ‘like’ getting info this way.
Personally, I hate it. I want to scan an article for its main points. When I watch a video that has content or info I want to learn, I get so frustrated with fancy graphics and extras that just take up my time. Just tell me your point, or better yet, have the option of a written article. I’d choose that every time.
I rarely get to watch video on blogs because I’m at WORK most of the time! By the time I get home, I just want to read, not watch or listen to anything (including TV) besides music.
I think video is catching up much like “online” caught up with print. I’m getting a lot of traffic and new readers by creating video.
Brent Riggs
http://www.brentriggs.com
@ Mike – But video posts get traffic in different ways. Like through network marketing and stuff.
It might not come in the form of search engine traffic.
Basically you could get more traffic from videos than text these days
My workplace blocks video for bandwidth reasons, so I can only watch at home. I’ll only do this if I’m interested enough in the subject to go back and check it out, whereas with text I “consume” the information virtually automatically as I scan and act or not act accordingly.
The impact for the blogger (you) is that I have an extra decision point prior to taking action when you communicate to me in video.
Video:
1. Do I consume the information?
2. Once consumed, do I act on the information?
Text:
1. Information consumed by scanning, do I act on the information?
I agree with Mike Nichols
I think that if you look at the future of the web, nothing will be replacing the versatility of text anytime soon. While flashy sites with a ton of youtube videos are pretty on the eye :P nothing is as effective at being optimised for a search engine as plain text. Steve Pavlina also mentioned this in one of his seminars, saying that he prefers text for both SEO, ease of use, content storage size and because it is searchable for key phrases.
Until something as effective as text for massess of content comes along, I think most Pro Boggers such as Darren & Steve pavlina will be sticking with it. Thanks for the great post
I like text because I can skim it for important points–can’t really do that with video. I’m also a fast reader so can get the takeaway points faster reading an article; I set the pace rather than the content creator. Finally, if I want to quote from an article I can find the quote without reading the whole thing. Ever try looking for a single sentence in a three min video?
Darren — A perfect example of why text is better than video happened to me just a few hours ago. I was showing a You Tube video to my grandfather and he wanted to show it to my friend. He asked if I could print it out somehow. Obviously as people become more and more tech savvy, this problem will diminish, but for the time being, I agree, text is still king.
My mom’s retired and I’ve taught her how to watch youtube and live streaming! And how to order online Asian soaps! :)
Only two years ago she didn not even know how to use a mouse. Now she’s stolen my laptop!
So It can be done if you have the patience to teach them and answer any inquiries they have.
There’s one other really important reason that text wins.
TEXT IS QUIET!
Steve
It comes down to this (for me) as a reader/viewer:
With text I can:
– read it in a busy office without annoying people
– stop/start/stop/start reading it without breaking the flow
– share quotes and important bits
– scan it when its one of two dozen posts I’m looking through in my RSS reader during a break
With video I can’t do any of that.
In a similar vein, there is a particular demographic that doesn’t “get” RSS feeds and readers but are very comfortable to subscribe to receive blog updates by e-mail via Feedburner or Feedblitz (the former being preferable in that it does not require subscribers to set up an account). It pays not to ignore these kind of user preferences if you want to reach as wide an audience as possible.
That’s why I always add a paragraph or 2 explaining what’s in the video making sure my main keywords for SEO are in there. :)
And listening to a video isn’t rocket science… just press play on the embedded video. ;)
I agree. My mum doesn’t know what YouTube is either.
Text has so many advantages when trying to convey information – I can read it quicker or skim read it, I can print it out, I can choose to only read the bits that interest me. Videos and podcasts also have their advantages, but maybe they’re consumed in different ways i.e. downloaded and listened to or watched later.
To me the big advantage of text is being able to pick out the bits of an article that are of interest – it’s too difficult to do this on a video or podcast.
I think over time videos and podcasts will become more accepted, but for now maybe their main use is for entertainment?
I certainly agree we shouldn’t assume everyone is tech-savvy. Me, I’m a web developer who doesn’t like jargon and prefers to read a post instead of watching a video. It’s less intrusive. :)
Agreed Darren. There’s no doubt that video is on the rise, but there will always be a market for the written word.
I’m part of the younger generation and I have to say, I hate having to watch videos/listen to podcasts to get information. I hate being stuck with the pace of the narrator. I also hate the possibility that the video/audio will just be a waste of time.
I prefer text sprinkled with interesting/relevant images. That way, I can scan the article and know almost immediately if it has the info I need.
Apples and oranges. My kids are 31 and 28, so I guess that puts me into the “Mum” age range, and I get YouTube just fine.
For entertainment.
If I want information, I can read text a heck of a lot faster than I can watch a video. And if I want to keep the information, I can print out the text or save it. How efficient is it to keep re-watching a video for reference?
If the video is demonstrating some tricky technique that’s easier seen than read, fine. But that’s about the only situation where I’d prefer a video over text.
Just a thought …
In some aspects text is more universally accepted than video. With video a lot of factors come into play. For example your pronunciation, accent, body language, presentation style etc. The readers judgment about the video may be influenced by these factors. Therefore the reader might ignore the core message.
The written word has been, is, and forever will be, taken as more accurate, serious, and definative then the idiot box (tv or computer video) ever will be.
And they said I couln’t mix my metaphors…
text doesn’t take as long to download
Darren, what I found is that text blogging is pretty crowded–but video is relatively untapped. There are so many people already doing it well every day that I don’t think a new writer can get attention.
Agree with you man. Elder people tend to go through lots of text rather than a glitzy webpage with full of videos and images because thats the way they had been educated and they consider that to be a norm yet.
And as text provides valid search terms in between if you have the right lingo, text is king.
tick..tick..tick…tick..tick..tick…tick..tick..tick…tick..tick..tick…tick..tick..tick.
This blog post will be wrong in 24 months…
Darren u are Still the king!
And “test is error prone” as well.
Darren, there is a typo on your 5th bullet point.
looking forward to what you come up with Gary :-)
Awesome.. I just wish I could pay you more.. just to justify your time there :)
I’ll only watch a video if I know the topic of the video is highly relevant to myself. As a developer, I frequently watch videos on programming language conferences and talks.
For all other interesting content on the web I like to see text as I can easily scan it, pick out the key points and take from it what I need in minutes, sometimes seconds.
My internet connection is shaky — at work and at home — so I prefer text. Video takes too long to load. Oh, and I use my k800i more often than I use my laptop.
Video is OK in countries with high speeds; it isn’t OK in South Africa.
I totally agree with darya – videos are time consuming since it’s not possible to just “skim” a video like you usually do with texts.
But I also think we should use videos in a different way. Just think of interviews – why not having a list of written questions and a link next to each question to listen to the answer? This way, users would know what the video is all about and didn’t have to watch the entire video to hear the “interesting” answers.
Not sure how old your mum is, but all the 50-60 year olds I know (& I know quite a few) regularly access and use YouTube. They’re clueless on how to add a video to the site but can manage just fine to watch the videos using links their grandchildren send them. So we will not be seeing any UGC out of these folks but they are adapting.
Think you are right to stick to text mainly on the blog at the moment (you are teh pro blogger after all & your word is teh gospel for blogs). But the balance is shifting and suspect Gary is right in the longer term.
I think u r wrong in writing off video. Look at the biggest sites on da web – they all use it, Utube, Facebook, Myspace. I think U gotta get with da times man. This is the craziest post eva.
I wasted a bunch of energy on short videos back in the late 90’s (I called them “show me hows”).
Sometimes the market’s not ready, sometimes the technology isn’t ready, sometimes the business isn’t ready, and sometimes the user experience isn’t ready.
The user experience scenarios have come a long way.
That raises the intrinsic value vs. market value questions. It also raises the supply side vs. demand side question. I do know that now the demand side is way higher for video than it was back then.
Of course there would be a future in Video’s but apart from videos I think there must be PODCASTS. Every Internet user in the world can’t watch videos depending on their internet speeds. but podcasts doesn’t give that problem and even you can upload it to your mobile and can listen to it on the road like me :)
But the thing is you can beat them both from TEXT if you keep text Short & Simple :)
hello…i vote for your blog on bloggers choice awards 2009.
it will be honour if you would vote for my blog too for foreign language category…success for you!
Gilang
Gigisehatbadansehat.blogspot.com
Bloggers are a little complacent with the net, they are the leaders, the most tech savvy. It is very easy to forget that people do not consume online media like we do.
I read a related stat the other day, only 1 billion people are online approx 25% of the population, that means that approx 75% of the wordls population is offline, we are a very small minority.
As far as gathering information (other than video tuts and demonstrations), vdeos are lacking: you can’t print or skim them and I agree it is more difficult to watch and listen to video on a break at work.
As fas as generational goes, my mother hasn’t had any trouble watching videos. She can find funny videos and I THINK she can even share them (like via email and such).
I can also see some benefits to pod casting. People can listen to them anytime via mp3 players and such. I think that sites that encorperate different mediums and do it right have the idea. I think having a pod cast AND the typed transcript is a great idea. I think a supplimental video now and again is also a nice touch. Don’t just rely on the multimedia (unless that’s your site’s theme)
Great post. As always, it’s about knowing your audience. Some fields are better suited to video, while others do the best with text. Instructional media, working out for example, (where the viewer needs to physically do something) is better with video, in my opinion, because you can watch someone do it and then mimic their actions. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to watch a video of someone just telling me something; this post for example.
i always use facebook to watch my video, it’s easy to upload and watch online, also needed as my tutorial video to viewers. I think it’s a better idea using videos and texts as a good combination.
Brenda pointed out something important about a lot of people not even being able to use RSS, let alone video. A full half of my subscribers subscribe via email, likely because it’s the only subscribe option they understand.
And my audience isn’t older people either, I’m mostly in the 30-45 range…but it has a significant segment of people who just aren’t as comfortable with what the geek crowd considers everyday, basic things on the web.
If you are doing something like running a self-hosted WordPress install, it kind of skews your idea of what is basic internet skills LOL
Videos are great stuff on a website, but still as you say text ,words…rule.
Video relying on Voice for its message without supportive, alternative textual formats is additionally inaccessible to my extended family members with hearing impairments..
The opportunity and need to personally advocate the same is definitely increasing which is a sign to this Keyboard that video usage continues to spread.. The spread is a good thing because videos are a nice accessibility augmentation for persons with cognitive disabilities..
Something others don’t as often consider is that video is also wholly inaccessible to those on low incomes.. I’m still with $10.00 dialup these days out of dire necessity.. Got a print screen around here of that service downloading via Firefox’s DownloadThemAll extension…
37 *BYTES* per.. Hm. :grin:
Cyber hugs from North Georgia..