Cherian is the Co-founder & Sculptor at Cucumbertown.com | Cook. I make stuff. Beautiful works-of-artNot so long ago since Airbnb took center stage, Craigslist has become synonymous with lack of innovation. More and more pieces of Craigslist’s pie (rentals, housing, crafts) have been taken away by products with better user experience and custom designed for their specific use-case — RSVP mechanisms for scheduling meetings, better platform mechanics for artisans, smarter job searches with categories etc. After 19 years Craigslist still remains the same for better or worse.
craigslist’s disruption. Credits: thegongshow.tumblr.com
YouTube is going through something similar. From skating to numberphiles YouTube is THE dumping ground for everything video.
The Internet has progressed since YouTube took the mantle. Our webpages are changing real-time, Google autocomplete crosses the Pacific faster than your heart beat, Ajax and long polling are passé terms and we are all set for a ‘mobile only’ future. But YouTube still remains the same. Maybe it has grown so big that it resists change. Maybe the elder audience has grown too fond of the interface; a change can have an adverse impact. Or most likely it’s a destination that’s reached critical mass beyond expectations.
Videos and hosting have come a long way. From a small project to a billion dollar acquisition YouTube was Google’s biggest bet until then. But now, video creation tools like Cameo, Mixbit, Luma etc are creating new markets and inspiring a whole generation. Glam Media has come out with a mobile app called FoodieTV directed at just foodies.
As a cook I was left to vent my frustration whenever I searched for a cooking video on YouTube. The experience was never right for me. I couldn’t go to a recipe step directly. It was a seek-play game. I couldn’t easily discover how easy or difficult the recipe is. I couldn’t with a birds eye view figure out how this potpie is different from mine.
When we set out to build a mobile app to do cooking videos, our hands were already full dealing with the intricacies of mobile but the constant guilt of not being able to deliver the right experience on the web kept nagging us. YouTube was just staring at us to innovate.
We wound up building a step-by-step image approach, with stackable ingredients, video on top as reference; skip to each step of the clip etc. Haven’t regretted it since.
Credits: anandnair.cucumbertown.com
That’s just cooking and recipes.
YouTube has more verticals than one can imagine and their attention goes to just the top 1% tier. The experience is a one-size-fits-all strategy.
But…
I need an experience to view video catalogs of movies and buy the James Bond watch right when I am inspired.
I need an experience to view all the trailers and buy movies right from them.
I need an experience for nursery rhymes.
I need an experience just for karaokes and lyrics beautifully laid out next to them.
I need a site just for music videos and lyrics.
I need an experience just for education. Just Discovery & National Geographic channels with the right recommendations.
I want a video channel with everything the same but a better UI.
Heck, I need a video site with better comments. Better useful comments.
YouTube must be disrupted. Someone has to take the mantle.
