Matt Candrian of Jabbits recently wrote a comment about his new video Q&A service, and it’s worth mentioning the site in a post so everyone can catch it.
Personally, it’s not for me. I’ve used Yahoo Answers and other Q&A sites partially for their speed – I can post quickly and relatively quickly find out if anyone has an answer, and video slows down the process. It’s much quicker to post text, and for others to respond with text. Of course, that ease means some people will post useless responses since they’re not taking the time, but I’d much rather quickly scan text than sit through others’ home movies.
I’m not the earliest adopter when it comes to video though. Maybe I’ll be the last text blogger after everyone has moved to audio or video (though I see podcast creation and video blogging as media outlets that won’t move beyond early adopters). Video Q&A may well work for certain types of questions.
Here’s the other question: why use Jabbits and not YouTube? I know Jabbits is designed for Q&A and will reach a more targeted audience, but video responses are common on other video sites.
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Show comments Hide commentsGood points – certainly thre are times when text-only Q&A is more appropriate and perhaps faster (i.e. “what’s the best motor oil for a diesel engine in winter?”) However there are distinct qualitative advantages of video – including a trust factor.
As many comments on YouTube or Yahoo Answers attest, anonymous replies are often irrelevant, but also negative as they can be accommodated in an anonymous text-based post. However when talking into a camera, we’ve found people take lots of time to craft insightful, thoughtful answers to questions. Certainly the questions that spawn these are more layered and careful as well in many cases. Plus, the spoken word can be entertaining stuff as some of the posts on Jabbits can attest (see “Off the Beaten Path vacation ideas in Mexico” as a prime example).
It’s also worth mentioning the unique research-related angles enabled by the Jabbits video framework. Specifically the ability for companies to screen participants on-the-fly and gain high volume (eventually), very low-cost qualitative feedback to business questions.
Lastly – to your point on why use Jabbits instead of YouTube. I’m a believer it’s a matter of the provocative nature of a dedicated site for individual exchanges. Rather than posting your webcam-based question among countless videos of guys falling off skateboards ;^), Jabbits presents a well-organized site specifically dedicated to an engaging and interactive Q&A format.
Hope this makes sense – I really appreciate the opportunity to post my comments here.
Thanks for a great research blog.
John Williamson
Co-Founder, http://www.jabbits.com