"Soapbox," which made its beta debut lately, is a place for uploading home footage on MSN Video.
Microsoft’s new Soapbox on MSN Video site takes on the popular site YouTube, which has become an online sensation for viral and homegrown user-generated video. Also crowding the online video market are Google Video, Yahoo Video and Revver.
Microsoft Corp. is hoping to tap the explosive popularity of online video sharing by joining startups and major Internet rivals with its own video service.
"Soapbox on MSN Video" will let Internet users watch and post videos of their cats dancing, babies laughing and teenagers playing air guitar, rate or comment on them and share favorites by e-mailing them or linking them to their personal Web pages or blogs.
Rob Bennett, general manager of MSN’s entertainment and video services unit, acknowledged that Silicon Valley startup YouTube Inc. has an early lead, having already attracted tens of millions of users in the year and a half since it launched. Rivals Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL also have similar offerings.
"It is really early days in online video; this is still act one," said Bennett.
YouTube had 34 million visitors last month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, while MSN Video attracts about 12m. The video-sharing market has proved increasingly popular with users in the last 12 months with services such as YouTube crossing over into mainstream success.
But Microsoft believes there is "still plenty of room to innovate, and go beyond what I would say most services provide … just sort of the basics, a very kind of primitive experience that is not that engaging," Bennett said. "It is not that fun to use. It just gets the job done."
During a preview, Bennett said Soapbox videos will be displayed in slightly larger windows than those competing services offer, and users will be able to expand videos to the full screen while they are playing, rather than having to jump back to the beginning and start over.
Popular Video
MSN Video was once the most popular video site until fans of user-generated content propelled YouTube, MySpace and Google past Microsoft.
MySpace video receives 17.9 million visitors a month and Google Video attracts 13.5 million each month, according to Nielsen.
Soapbox on MSN Video, code-named Warhol, will eventually be integrated with Windows Live Messenger to allow people to embed links to videos in instant messages and with Windows Live Spaces so people can include videos on their blogs.
Soapbox will group videos in various categories, including most recent, most viewed, most commented on and top favorites. It will let users "tag" clips with keywords designed to make them easier for people to find.
A beta "test" version will initially be available on an invitation-only basis to some Microsoft employees and regular MSN testers, Bennett said. He said Soapbox will be expanded to a wider audience "very quickly," but he could not say how soon.
However, the site was hit by a technical problem which told users: “Oops. It’s not anything you did – it’s us. Our site’s down. Please try again later.”
Soapbox will support a maximum file size of 100 megabytes — comparable to YouTube and Yahoo — and will work on computers running both Microsoft Windows and Apple Computer Inc.’s Macintosh computers. It will work with either Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Mozilla’s Firefox Web browsers and accept the major media formats, including Windows Media Player and Apple’s QuickTime.
Bennett also showed off a "visualizer" video search tool for MSN Video’s existing licensed content that lets people search for and browse video by seeing relationships between tagged items. The keyword clustering application was created by an intern and could become a feature on Soapbox, he said.
Bennett said MSN’s 465 million visitors a month worldwide would help it give YouTube a run for its money, despite the start-up’s established leadership. He likened the situation to that of Microsoft’s MSN Spaces, which rose to become the No. 1 blog Web site globally within a year of its launch in 2004.
“Microsoft is jumping on this bandwagon with some uncertainty with where it is going, but the company believes it needs to be on board,” Joe Wilcox, an analyst at Jupiter Research, told Reuters.
"Right now with video, everybody’s throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks," Wilcox said, "and since everybody else is throwing spaghetti, Microsoft is throwing its own."
Microsoft has not yet pinned down its strategy for making money off Soapbox. Unlike YouTube, Soapbox will have no advertisements, but Bennett said Microsoft is considering various options for incorporating advertising to monetize the video by showing it on the main MSN Video site or by creating a "viral video hub."
Microsoft has a partnership with The Associated Press for a separate service, called the Online Video Network, in which the news cooperative’s member Web sites can offer free video news clips and share in advertising revenue the service generates.
Wilcox suggested Microsoft’s success with Soapbox will hinge on how much traction it gains with people who want to share their videos with tight-knit networks of family and friends. "YouTube reaches the bazillions," Wilcox said, "but while Soapbox can do that, Microsoft’s emphasis will be the people that you know … me or you at the center with concentric circles going outward."
Microsoft has said it will take down any copyrighted material uploaded by users without permission once it is alerted by the rights holder.
High Ranking + Higher ROI = Search Engine Optimization
A higher search ranking is what many website owners dream of. Rather than spending your money on print advertising, or expensive television and radio commercials, you can reach your direct audience with the right Search Engine Optimization services.