Dan G

I've been a bit slow accepting how much of an influence video is beginning to have on the web. Scoble has repeatedly stressed how powerful video can be, but I have, to be honest, been largely ignoring video. I've been rating it somewhere around animaged gifs; an annoying distraction that takes a long time to load.

Then I watched my mum browse to a website that had put a small Flash video front and center on their homepage. She quietly watched it and then I asked her about it. Scoble is right; my mum, who is well past retirement, had a much greater understanding of the company from watching the video than she ever would have got from reading the website. In much less time, too.

Video is clearly becoming increasingly important in putting over information. The web has been traditionally text based, backed up with images. But when there's big news, everyone put the TV on. People will read the newspapers the next day for analysis, but they want the video as it gives them the best feel of the event.

I think many companies would be wise to heed Scoble's advice, and use small, simple, well-made videos where-ever they can.