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With Vids, Google thinks it has the next big productivity tool for work

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Re: With Vids, Google thinks it has the next big productivity tool for work

#131

Post by calirepublik »

blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #26
graypegg wrote: post #11

It's odd to me that they wanted to make a whole new "app" for this, rather than building in some sort of timeline into slides. Powerpoint supports automatically transitioning slides and auto playing video, so with some fancy magic in the export where they slice the video for each slide, you could even do everything in a "compatible" way. Slides would of course be able to keep the video on top of the slides + transiti…

I think there are a few benefits to doing creating a whole new app. First, a video editing application can become very sophisticated, especially if you want to both offer easy fast creation/editing features but also provide a spectrum where users can opt into more customization or sophistication. Cramming that user interface alongside other UI for slides or whatever will quickly become too crowded and unmanageable, f…

It's a whole new project they can cancel in the future once it has enough users.

Re: With Vids, Google thinks it has the next big productivity tool for work

#132

Post by wetpaws »

busymom0 wrote: post #122
fetzu wrote: post #88

One of my worst nightmares, using videos to convey information. It was bad enough with this wave of YouTube “guides” that take eight minutes to explain something which could have been done in a paragraph. Videos are also the worst searchable medium, really looking forward to having to scan through hours of content to find “that thing I saw six months ago”. Who in their right mind would think that video could be a pro…

Video tutorials can be good but YouTube's move to remove dislikes from videos made it impossible to figure out if the tutorial was good or waste of time.

[dead]

Re: With Vids, Google thinks it has the next big productivity tool for work

#133

Post by tiptup300 »

JohnMakin wrote: post #99
fetzu wrote: post #88

One of my worst nightmares, using videos to convey information. It was bad enough with this wave of YouTube “guides” that take eight minutes to explain something which could have been done in a paragraph. Videos are also the worst searchable medium, really looking forward to having to scan through hours of content to find “that thing I saw six months ago”. Who in their right mind would think that video could be a pro…

IMO it's because literacy rates are in the toilet.

disagree, I read a ton of news, have for a while

I love long form video essays. The longer the better.

Where for a off the cuff article I find I'm much less likely to read the whole thing unless it's really piqued my interest. Note that I'm not an especially fast reader.

Re: With Vids, Google thinks it has the next big productivity tool for work

#134

Post by fetzu »

uuddlrlrbaba wrote: post #118
fetzu wrote: post #88

One of my worst nightmares, using videos to convey information. It was bad enough with this wave of YouTube “guides” that take eight minutes to explain something which could have been done in a paragraph. Videos are also the worst searchable medium, really looking forward to having to scan through hours of content to find “that thing I saw six months ago”. Who in their right mind would think that video could be a pro…

What a "get off my lawn" take. I think you are entirely undervaluing having access to video tutorials on virtually any subject. A paragraph on the internet doesn't show you step by step visually how to do something. Short form video, if you haven't noticed, is absolutely dominating social media and google has good reason to bundle and theme it for the workplace.

It’s a “get off my lawn” take from someone who has worked in video and film for well over a decade. I have almost never watched a video tutorial an any subject and thought “that was informative and a good use of my time”. As others have pointed out, there is absolutely a way to show step by step how to do something with “static” media. Take the example of an IKEA assembly manual: think about how they are well conceived, and now imagine the absolute hell of having a video showing you the same instructions. Think of all the pauses, rewinds and fast forwards that would be necessary.

And since we are doing half-assed attacks, yours is a very naive take. Setting aside that most “short form video” on social media is not even used to actually convey information (as in the “productivity/office” sense of the original article), the reason video is dominating social media is because 1) advertisers pay way more to have ads shown before a video than among static content and 2) it is much more complicated to do Ad Blocking on video than on static content.

Re: With Vids, Google thinks it has the next big productivity tool for work

#135

Post by JohnFen »

gia_ferrari wrote: post #94
peeters wrote: post #53

As an alternative to slides it might work well, but both are terrible formats for reference material (anything where you need to extract a quick piece of information). The shift to having to mine YouTube videos for much of the world's specialized knowledge is a shame, and Google makes it worse every day with how they prioritize search results.

I run a local Tube Archivist mirror and having live, predictable full-text search of descriptions, transcripts, and user comments has been a breath of fresh air (it's backed by ElasticSearch, so you can go full-contact if needed). I appreciate YouTube's official search for its accessibility, speed, and spooky "it knew what I meant" ability, but it's a tragedy that this is the only supported way to search their librar…

> I appreciate YouTube's official search for its accessibility, speed, and spooky "it knew what I meant" ability

That's interesting to hear, because my experience with YouTube search is poor. It will find text that appears in the title of a video, but that's about it. It certainly has no idea of "what I meant".

Re: With Vids, Google thinks it has the next big productivity tool for work

#136

Post by djmips »

fetzu wrote: post #88

One of my worst nightmares, using videos to convey information. It was bad enough with this wave of YouTube “guides” that take eight minutes to explain something which could have been done in a paragraph. Videos are also the worst searchable medium, really looking forward to having to scan through hours of content to find “that thing I saw six months ago”. Who in their right mind would think that video could be a pro…

They are not that unsearchable anymore. Text transcripts plus AI summarizations go a long way. Plus some things are really suited to a video format. It's much easier to watch someone fix the brakes on a particular model car than if they just wrote about it and even if they wrote about it with photos. The three dimensions you can pick out from video is infinitely superior. I also find that being shown how to use features in an IDE or 3D modelling program is much easier to follow in a video format. So video certainly has it's place.

Re: With Vids, Google thinks it has the next big productivity tool for work

#137

Post by djmips »

busymom0 wrote: post #122
fetzu wrote: post #88

One of my worst nightmares, using videos to convey information. It was bad enough with this wave of YouTube “guides” that take eight minutes to explain something which could have been done in a paragraph. Videos are also the worst searchable medium, really looking forward to having to scan through hours of content to find “that thing I saw six months ago”. Who in their right mind would think that video could be a pro…

Video tutorials can be good but YouTube's move to remove dislikes from videos made it impossible to figure out if the tutorial was good or waste of time.

That's true but you can still skim the comments I suppose to get an idea.

Re: With Vids, Google thinks it has the next big productivity tool for work

#138

Post by busymom0 »

djmips wrote: post #137
busymom0 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video tutorials can be good but YouTube's move to remove dislikes from videos made it impossible to figure out if the tutorial was good or waste of time.

That's true but you can still skim the comments I suppose to get an idea.

Yea, that's what I end up doing but it wastes more time. Before, I could just look at the like-dislike ratio and get an instant signal that a tutorial was crap.

Re: With Vids, Google thinks it has the next big productivity tool for work

#139

Post by AlexAndScripts »

JohnMakin wrote: post #99
fetzu wrote: post #88

One of my worst nightmares, using videos to convey information. It was bad enough with this wave of YouTube “guides” that take eight minutes to explain something which could have been done in a paragraph. Videos are also the worst searchable medium, really looking forward to having to scan through hours of content to find “that thing I saw six months ago”. Who in their right mind would think that video could be a pro…

IMO it's because literacy rates are in the toilet.

I'm 18. I suspect this is related to attention span: Videos capture your attention far better and are more addictive. Additionally, while people can read, they're worryingly slow and they are so out of practice that the very act of extended reading tires them out - even if the subject itself is trivial. I think my reading speed is slightly above average among adults, and I can read text at my normal speed three times in the time it takes my peers to read it once. That's with brain damage.

These are very intelligent people, it's just that my generation is moving away from reading.

I've had discussions with friends who think academic papers should be replaced with videos. They find writing so time consuming and difficult that they think that an informative, animated video could be made with the same amount of effort as an academic paper. They also say that they're frequently distracted from the content due to the effort of reading itself.

I've been surprised by the extent to which people use "person talks to camera" style videos for revision and re-learning, rather than reading condensed notes. They are significantly slower, you can't scan through until you find something you're unfamiliar with, and they're just plain dull. Despite that, they're one of the most popular ways to revise. Perhaps it's because you can zone out of videos, convincing yourself that you're learning without actively engaging with the content. Again, I don't mean 3b1b style animated lectures, I mean someone essentially paraphrasing the textbook to the camera.

An similar phenomenon that also worries me is the lack of distinction between how people speak and how people write, and not in the "use straightforward language, not purple prose" way. People comma-splice entire paragraphs (if they use paragraphs at all) in a stream of consciousness rather than organising their thoughts.

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