Good point on having an opinion about video v. whether it will be ubiquitous. Nice job using such a $50 word on your blog, BTW.

Despite my dislike of it as well (I think it’s my age because my young employees live and breathe the stuff)I suspect that video will be de rigeur in the near future. Doesn’t mean it’s going to be good though. I can only imagine the junk that will be produced and passed off as content.

Like everything else it will come down to return on investment.

I know there’s a lot of excitement from the likes of the Kelsey group and other print media watchers over the recent estimated number.

http://gesterling.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/yes-video-a-hit-with-smbs/

When a small business has such difficulties parting with their hard earned money for online marketing (studies indicate a threshold of 100-400 USD / mo as a comfort level) it’s hard to justify the current costs of video.

And, it’s the costs which are so exciting to those with a massive distribution network and sales force (like yellow pages).

As some of the commenters here have noted quality becomes an issue at the lower costs. And when the low-cost solution is a template by industry the differentiation offered in the stats noted in the FindLaw study will likely change.

In other words, in industries where there is a significant return on any media and a high degree of ego based buying (both by the advertiser and the consumer) I think it will become near ubiquitous and when it does it will no longer be a differentiator and will eventually lose value.

For the mom & pop the solution with a low enough cost may get some traction but only among low-hanging fruit and, in my opinion will be short lived.

Will

And just to clarify for future readers, I’m not asking if you like video on the web — I’m asking what you think is the future of video on the web.

I’m also not a fan, and rarely spend the time watching video, but I don’t think that’s going to have any impact on it’s growing popularity.

http://www.reelseo.com/online-video-marketing-lawyers/

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“…consumers typically visit an average of almost 5 websites (4.8) before they end up making a decision as to which attorney to choose. When video is added to the lawyer’s website, this number decreases to 1.8. This indicates that consumers are more apt to choose an attorney that offers an online video on their website. Perhaps this is because the clients feel more comfortable dealing with an attorney that they can put a face to…”
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I think this demonstrates a key point. In *specific verticals*, I think it will be on every website for reasons that vary by industry. If it works, it will be there, but I don’t think it has the same effect everywhere.

Laura Alter

I guess I don’t see it having to replace information in another format (HTML, PDFs, images), just another way to communicate. I welcome seeing it in all kinds of places and making my own decisions on use and value as I come across it. If video wasn’t valuable and engaging, we’d still only be sitting in front of the radio.

We did a company overview video for our website to add some human element and personality (warmth) to our website and service. Let people see the people they will work with when choosing a web firm. We’ve had very favorable feedback so far.
http://www.fivetechnology.com/why-five.php

Contact/About us pages are ubiquitous because they are a form of meta data, video is promotional, informational, or entertaining, and not everyone needs that.