There are lots of reasons to incorporate video into your site. For most people, the tricky part is not the "why," but the "how." What if you already have a movie that you've made with a program like QuickTime, and it has the .mov extension? How do you have it just play on your page when people load it?
Don't Rely On Your Viewers To Have A .Mov Media Player
Naive webmasters who don't know much about embedded video will probably just upload the .mov file directly to their site's public html directory. They'll probably put some text on their site, to the effect of, "Click Here to see Our Product in Action!!!" and include a link to the .mov file of their product (let's say, the product is a kit that lets you patch up old drywall in just two days).
They don't realize how unprofessional this looks. They also don't realize that most people aren't going to have a .mov file player browser extension. Most people are just going to click on the link and see a big fat nothing. Or, they'll get a message saying that "this file requires you to install a QuickTime player to view." Or, the browser will simply try to save the .mov file onto the person's computer. Most people are going to get alarmed. They'll think, "What? I don't understand; is this site trying to put a virus on my computer??" and they're probably never going to visit the site again--let alone download a QuickTime player. At the very least, they'll probably be too lazy to install the player, and they won't get to watch that video of paint drying.
One alternative, of course, is to get an account with a site like YouTube and upload that video of your product. Sites like YouTube will convert your video to a streaming Flash format, and most people who have a Flash player will be able to view it. However, obviously, a business resorting to such a tactic looks highly unprofessional.
Get A .Mov Codec That Can Play QuickTime Files Over The Web
The solution to this conundrum is to get your own .mov file player and put it up on your site. Probably getting a Flash-based one is the best idea (as most people have Flash on their browsers), although a Java-based one might also work. Are you going to have to figure out how to make a codec in Flash on your own? No way! There are quite a few movie players that stream .mov and .mp4 files already out there on the Internet. The trick is to find a good one, with lots of features. For example, some of the better players let you show one video, while previewing others as clickable thumbnails on the bottom. |
