Google Video in a move that ups YouTube has added a way for anyone to link to a specific part of a video. All you need to do is append the time in this format (#1m35s)
to the video URL.
This is a significant advancement for video sharing and multimedia overall. I would love to see this ported over to podcasts and perhaps formalized under some standard that the mainstream media and individuals are able to adopt without going through Google. Add some metdata around these URLs and I would imagine it will become easier to search/tag audio and video content. This would get even more interesting if feeds begin linking to individual segments and not just an entire piece of multimedia content.
Steve nails it... of course the question I find is never just having the right idea. The problem is proper execution, and the implimentation is very prone to issues.
As many early vloggers know Mefeedia.com had a "video quoting" tool, though I don't know where it went. The idea being that one could directly quote or reference a particular segment of a clip and reference it via a url. Theoretically this might be particularly handy for referencing (for example) a partiular segment of a speach at a conference, but it had many technical issues, such as the fact it only worked with Quicktime compatible videos.
Technical considerations a side the ability to reference specific points in video... so called video permalinks would allow us not only new ways to reference media, but also new ways to annotate it, tag it, and make it otherwise searchable.
It occurs to me that there are three or four places where this makes the most sense to impliment
1) point of origin, host services... i.e. as google video is doing, also youtube, blip.tv and others video hosts and vlogging platforms... even myspace, livejournal, blogger.
2) point of origin, blog platforms... wordpress, moveable type. This is where time based permalinks has the best chance, if not the quickest of catching on.. of a standard evolving.
3) point of origin, video formats / standards... the most ideal situation would be for formats such as Quicktime, Windows Media Player, and above all Flash to support time based referencing. By simply creating a standard by which a video can be referenced such as "http://url.com/.../video.mov?time=1m32s". While it may take a long while for such as Apple or Microsoft to ever impliment such a system it may be in hands of Flash developers to build players that promote this standard. While Flash developers might be able to get together and just impliment this, the best course of action Quicktime and Win media support might be standards organizations for video formats.
4) middle player services... mefeedia.com, odeo.com and others... There are not to many middle players out there... some are search, some are directories... but there is opportunity wether with video or even more so with audio to impliment such a time based reference model as a service... the problem however for these services is opportunity cost... such a service will always be an obscure service on this level utilized only by a few. Developmentally it will take a lot of time... and from a usability standpoint the proper place and workflow must be found within such a service for users to find a tool such as this useful. Simply put it will require as much of a breaktrhough in usability as it will technology and development.
Via Micro Persuasion: Google Video Adds in-Stream Permalinks
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