SceneChat Latest to Add Social Sharing Features to Video
Startup SceneChat, which lets users create comments that are tied to a specific point in a video, launches today in closed beta. The service goes beyond comments, allowing for threaded discussions and sharing. Viewers can share videos on Facebook and Twitter, linking friends to the moment they want to show.
If this sounds familiar, LeanIn publicly launched a similar service less than a month ago. The public launch following LeanIn's unsuccessful attempt to privately offer its service to media companies. It remains to be seen whether or not viewers want to comment on particular moments of a video, and if a system can be easy and enticing enough for most users.
SceneChat can be added to embedded videos with a few lines of JavaScript, which only needs to be added once per page. The developers stress that SceneChat loads after the rest of the page, so that visitors won't be inconvenienced.
The service's Facebook sharing offers deep interactivity, with viewers able to map comments and replies to their Facebook pages, if they like. Viewers of a SceneChat video can comment publicly or create a private URL for sharing and commenting with friends. Public comments are open to search engines to improve SEO.
Site owners using SceneChat get access to analytics that show how their viewers are interacting with videos. Paid users get access to a Google Analytics tool.
SceneChat should be in open beta in 30 days and leave beta in the mid-fourth quarter of 2011. The company is funded by angel investors that include baseball hall of famer Joe Morgan.
"SceneChat attracted me because of its unique, disruptive technology that is ideal for commenting on sports video clips, as well as other video content. I am excited to be an early investor in the company and see great promise in their business model and offerings -- I'm looking forward to a home run on their launch and follow-on activities," says Morgan.
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22 Aug 2011