Watching WorldTV Is A Blast

WorldTV is another invitation only, alpha even, startup I have been testing for our readers over these last few days. The service allows users to select and view millions of online videos and to organize them into unique playlists. The idea is not revolutionary but the flash interposing of full screen video inside the user browser is. WorldTV has a look and feel that is unique and attractive. The service is perhaps one of the most interesting early phase startups we have tested and users will be treated to video viewing that is altogether different from what they have experienced so far on Web 2.0. 

Visions of Television

WorldTV has been 10 years in the planning and the developer Alx Klive has led a very interesting life as an inventor, futurist, entrepreneur and journalist. WorldTV is actually a relaunch of a long time project of Klive's. His vision is to help users find, share and develop their talents in a free innovative platform. WorldTV is driving at intelligent online TV in a simple and easy to use package and Klive has demonstrated a dogged determination to make this startup into something special. This startup story is perhaps one of the most interesting I have seen in some time.

The WorldTV site is decidedly simple and easy to use. Video can be added via text searching selected prominent sites like YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo! Video or AOL at present. The clean little UI/editor allows for simple video addition and the creation of playlists from the drag-and-drop editing tool out of a user's library of clips.

Users at WorldTV can create their own channels and label them with their own customized channel logos. Perhaps the coolest feature so far is that these channels are viewed directly from the browser window in full screen mode. There are no downloads and when a user selects "view my channel" a separate browser appears with the UI for this relative player.

Pros

The video on WorldTV comes though crystal clear right in the browser and the simple editor makes every function a snap. Every video I searched for resulted in a very relevant and functional scrolling pull down with relevant results that were easy to preview and add. I like the preview aspect which enables adding only the best quality videos to a library. In fact, every video I noticed in the search results appeared to be segregated according to both relevancy and quality. I am not sure if this is something built into the search aspect or not, but it was clearly apparent in my test.

Cons

I am not sure just how many negatives a writer can list for something this new? WorldTV is not exactly Joost, but the same potential exists save the advanced UI on that entity. I suppose even that could be integrated but I am not sure of the plans Klive has in this regard. The site is not "awe inspiring" in its uniqueness as there are many that can search and aggregate as well, but I like the simplistic and clean editor the developer has chosen. I do not yet see the community or advanced features suggested for video professionals and the editor does not currently support uploading or manipulation of content in that regard. As I mentioned, this is a very new startup with lots of room for improvement and I need to emphasize that strongly. It is simply too early to tell if this unique startup will take off and fly but something tells me this developer has more in store for us web TV fans.

fConclusion

It is always exciting to test startups that no one has any idea they exist, but it is equally difficult to be as objective sometimes. WorldTV is about to enter one of the most "done" venues of Web 2.0 and this is not going to be an easy market entry. The site can provide its users with a very clean aggregation and sharing utility and I hope some additional user tools. The addition of upload and editing tools to this cool site could easily make it a favorite among talented video creators and subsequently viewers. As it stands right now, I would use the service simply because of its crisp and easy search capability. The addition of network affiliations ala Joost would make this little toy into a nice TV set.

Image 1.1 WorldTV with editor in the background and preview in the foreground

Image 1.2 The WorldTV editor behind the resized browser player