Just because it is shared on Twitter doesn’t make it good. Nevertheless, ffwd, the video-surfing recommendation site that borrows from StumbleVideo, has launched Twitmatic, a video site that plays only videos being shared on Twitter. (The name TwitterTV was already taken).
The concept is very simple. You are presented with videos in an embedded player which you can watch, or skip to the next one. If you like a video, there is a “Tweet this video” button, which acts as an extra vote for the video since presumably ffwd is counting how many times a particular video is Tweeted to come up with its recommendations. The videos I saw on the site were pretty random, everything from the little boy David who just came back from dental surgery and a guy throwing his Wii controller through his TV screen to one where some guys are setting up a race track in their office. Interspersed in there were also really bad marketing videos for a Rodial Tummy Tuck machine (I’ll spare you the link), get-rich-quick schemes, and dry stock market analysis.
People share all sorts of junk on Twitter. I’m not sure it works as an effective filter for video. But it does help kill some time. Ffwd also has set up a special SXSW version of Twitmatic showcasing videos from the conference in Austin which begins today.
(See also, our previous coverage on ffwd).
Erick has been discovering and working with startups his entire professional career as a technology journalist, startup event producer, and founder. Erick is President & Founding Partner at Traction Technology Partners. He is also a co-founder of TouchCast, the leading interactive video platform, and a partner at bMuse, a startup studio in New York City. He is the former Executive Producer of the DEMO conferences and former Editor-in-Chief of TechCrunch (where he helped conceive, lead and select startups for the Disrupt conferences, among other duties). Prior to TechCrunch, which he joined as Co-Editor in 2007, Erick was Editor-at-Large for Business 2.0 magazine, and a senior writer at Fortune magazine covering technology.
At TechCrunch, he oversaw the editorial content of the site, helped to program the Disrupt conferences and CrunchUps, produced TCTV shows, and wrote daily for the blog. He joined TechCrunch as Co-Editor in 2007, and helped take it from a popular blog to a thriving media property. After founder Michael Arrington left in 2011, Schonfeld became Editor in Chief.
Prior to TechCrunch, he was Editor-at-Large for Business 2.0 magazine, where he wrote feature stories and ran their main blog, The Next Net. He also launched the online video series “The Disruptors” with CNN/Money and hosted regular panels and conferences of industry luminaries. Schonfeld started his career at Fortune magazine in 1993, where he was recognized with numerous journalism awards.