If you’re putting video on your website, you want as many folks as possible to watch it, right? No matter if your viewer is using Windows, or Apple, they should be able to watch it quickly and without hassle.
There are more than a handful of multimedia formats, and some players don’t play them all.
I’m a PC – always have been; always will be. Here’s something I didn’t know – not all Windows systems have Windows Media Player pre-installed. On the other hand, not all Apple machines have Quicktime pre-installed. Windows Media won’t play Quicktime files. Quicktime doesn’t like Windows. But there’s one format, and one player that works with both operating systems.
When it comes to putting videos on your website, Adobe Flash has a lot going for it.
- The small file size means it loads quickly
- You can pre-set the buffer size, so it starts playing immediately
- It embeds easily into webcode
- You can determine how you want the player to look.
- You can view it full screen if you want
- Mobile devices are using it. (It’s true, Flash doesn’t play well with the Iphone. That’s why you also need an MP4 version of all your videos.)
Your website visitors don’t want to have to wait while a video downloads. Give them the experience they want, and the information they need, and they will actually spend a longer time on your site. My average viewer spends almost four minutes on each page. And there are effective and affordable video players which will even generate the code for you. All you do is plug and play!
Do it now. The longer you wait the further behind the curve you will be. Video is not a craze. It will become as ubiquitous as text and images are on websites.
–That’s A Wrap.