Soapbox is now fully integrated with MSN video Beta. This means that soapbox is no longer a seperate and dedicated site but part of the next generation of MSN video.
So the web address for soapbox now redirects to the new location at http://next.video.msn.com. The new site now has a Soapbox user videos tab on the main navigation.
Some of the new features, courtesy of the Soapbox Team Blog:
- Single integrated site to view premium MSN Video content and your Soapbox User-Created Videos.
- Video Showcase - Highlights videos of interest, as well as most watched videos.
- Integrated Search - Integrated Search results for MSN Video, Soapbox User Videos and even Web Video results, all on one page.
- Improved Encoding Times - New Encoding servers to increase your encoding speeds.
- New Navigation - Find and search for videos using one navigation bar.
- Expandable Screensize - Expand the site on a 16x9 monitor and the video gallery will increase in size gracefully.
- Better Sort Filters - View Most Watched videos for Categories and Top Lists.
- Support of New Video Codecs and Extensions - Support for numerous types of disc drive cameras and video formats.
- Updated RSS feeds. Soapbox Videos display in RSS Readers with native embedded player.
- FullScreen option for Soapbox Embedded Player.
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How does this compare to YouTube?
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Is this aimed at consumers or business use or both?
How does this compare to YouTube
That's a really good question. My feeling is that MSN is trying to appeal to mass market by creating a high quality video service allowing distributon of video online free of charge. All with ease of access using existing Live login. The huge negative I feel are the third party adverts that get tagged on the end of videos. So I can't see this being something adopted by serious business users.