When I read today that Microsoft had taken its YouTube killer out of limited beta and opened it up for public beta, I had to go try it out right away.

The first nice bit was that I could login with my Hotmail e-mail address and password. Basically, I already had an account.

To really test it, I used a Quicktime video that Google has no problem with (though sometimes slooooo processing times), but YouTube won't accept. It's my video on how to create a valentine using FunDraw.com.

Microsoft's upload procedure is definitely nicer than Google's. Even using FireFox on a Mac, it showed me my actual upload progress (instead of Google's "uploading" with a couple of colored balls rolling back and forth) and worked very easily.

And a surprising thing... Microsoft uses Flash for displaying the final product. I was expecting them to use Windows Media Player and encode them in one of their Windows Video codecs, but apparently they've thought about maximum usability across multiple platforms and decided to go with the solution that's actually best for their users instead of the one that tries to force you into proprietary Windows stuff. That was a shock, to say the least.

How's the quality? I'll let you decide. Here's the Soapbox (Microsoft) version...

Video: Making Valentines With FunDraw.com

And here's the Google Video version...

They're both created from the exact same master video, but the Microsoft video definitely seems less blurry. And Microsoft has taken a few lessons from YouTube like the "click to play" icon, whereas Google makes you click the little play button in the controls at the bottom.

Overall, it seems that Microsoft is presenting a better picture quality and a better user interface than Google, better quality and similar interface to YouTube, and they're accepting a wider range of video encodings than YouTube.

Being the 800 pound gorilla in the video space means that YouTube probably isn't quaking in their boots. But this also makes Microsoft the scrappy upstart, trying to beat the competition by providing a superior product. They could always shoot themselves in the foot, but if this is the beta, their final release will at very minimum put YouTube on notice that this race for video superiority hasn't yet reached the first curve in the track.

UPDATE: After this, I tried YouTube and it accepted the video. Read the Microsoft Soapbox vs. YouTube comparison.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 15th, 2007 at 5:02 pm and is filed under Techno Thoughts, Technology & Life, Web Programming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.