Discover interesting videos with Videopind

One97, the company behind the online recharge experience at paytm.com has recently launched its brand new video sharing platform called Videopind. It is a available as a Facebook app and as a iTunes app as well, with support for other platforms coming soon.

Videopind is positioned as a video discovery platform. The strategy they are using is slightly different from what the big players are doing. While Facebook, YouTube et. al. have ranking algorithms which figure out which videos should be featured and recommended, Videopind is using curation. That is, instead of using algorithms, Videopind is using a team of people which selects the best videos from the bewildering choices out there, and brings these to the platform. The advantage of this strategy is that you're nearly guaranteed the quality of videos on the platform, rather than a "best-guess" with algorithmic recommendations.

For example, on the "Hollywood Trailers" channel that I subscribed to, the list of trailers is all the good movies that I want to see. On YouTube, the equivalent channel for trailers is full of indie movies and other exotic things that I've not even heard of, let alone be interested in. I think Videopind may be onto something here - While curation is expensive and how easily it will scale remains to be seen, it does bring in a certain kind of "quality" that makes the browsing experience significantly better.

I've been using the Videopind Facebook app, and the one thing I really liked about it is that it respects your Facebook privacy. It won't spam your facebook feed with embarrassing updates automatically. There is an explicit share button, and unless you press the button, the app won't post on your Facebook feed. That kind of self-restraint is something that Facebook apps need more of. Actually, when you install the app on your Facebook profile, it asks you for the permission to access your Facebook feed. Even if you decline that permission, the app still works, which is awesome.

The other thing that is worth mentioning is that the app is well designed, and visually pleasing. This is a characteristic that is kinda rare to come by, but the Videopind has clearly spent some time thinking through the user experience. The video-watching experience is largely clutter free, with the player embedded in the center, with only the important buttons visible. The recommendations are not cluttered, and seem to be relevant (at least to me) most of the time. Only 4 video recommendations at a time, Instead of the 23 recommendations I'm seeing on YouTube right now. Nice.

Videopind has some other nifty features, like a cloud-sync for your favorites, so you can favorite your videos on your iPhone, and watch them in office on your big screen :) The other neat little feature I like is "dynamic" channels. This is a playlist that you create based on a search keyword, like "trailers", and the playlist automatically updates everyday based on the search results. It also integrates with your social network as expected, making it easy to share and favorite videos, and see what your friends are sharing.

There are lots of video sharing apps, channels, sites etc... out there. Videopind is a good one among them. You would truly enjoy the experience if you're looking for a neat interface and just want to watch some interesting videos.

Check out the Facebook App or download on the iTunes store.