Cozmo wants to kill your TV TiVo came along and is helping kill the idea of
a TV time slot. The growth of on demand online video has been helping finish
the job. Cozmo.Tv wants to create a TV 2.0 by changing the way you consume
online video from a random walk to personalized content. Next week at Always
On, they will officially announce the new embeddable video widget theyve been
working on for the past couple of months. The widget functions like an online
TV, streaming channels of personalized video content based on the initial
preferences set by the widget publisher and the preferences of the viewer.
Publishers seed their widget with the initial channels by adding explicit RSS
feeds to video sites or keyword searches run on Cozmos video index. Basing
channels off of feeds means that a widget can be set up and forgotten, adding
content to its channels as new shows appear in the feed. At launch the indexed
sites will include videos from YouTube and Blip.tv, but will expand to include
Google Video, MySpace, Brightcove, and Break.com. Eventually publishers will
also be able to seed their widget with relevant channels by having Cozmo
analyze their personal blog or profile page (where most widgets will be
installed). The one below is pulling CBSs YouTube clips along with some
others, including a channel of videos youd find by searching YouTube for
kittens.
On the viewers end, you can surf over channels or shows and rate them. When
youre signed in, Cozmo tracks how you rate shows and then will suggest the
shows on that channel rated highly by other viewers similar to you in voting
history and demographic.
Cozmo wants to eventually move beyond viral video sites after scaling up the
service. They are logging 25,000 uniques to their site each month, but want the
upcoming widget to be their main form of distribution. The widget is designed
to be a self contained version of Cozmos entire offering, allowing users to
sign up for accounts, rip the code for the current player, or create their own.
The hope is that after building up a network of these widget players, theyll
serve as a direct distribution parter for content creators. Creators and
affiliates who distribute the content will get revenue shares of contextual
banner and interstitial video ads served on the player.
Readers interested in customized online video channels should check out
SplashCasts RSS-based multimedia player, MeeVees personalized online video
guide, Blinkxs Blinkx It widget, and of course Joost.
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