
Online video proliferation is creating frustration for web users, says survey
The massive explosion in user generated content is creating frustration for internet users according to the latest survey from Kelton Research in the US. With hundreds of thousands of new videos up-loaded each day the on-line video vaults are becoming over crowded and chaotic.
> 96% of Americans do not find the video they are looking for in their initial search, a trend that is likely
to
be
replicated in the UK.
> Over 61% of internet users in the USA feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of video content available.
> 46% of these people choose not to watch online videos because they dread the task of trawling through the
multitude of search results.
> Although the hardened internet user may persevere with the maze of search results to find the video they
require, the majority of light users often give up their search out of sheer frustration.
If the internet is to provide quality entertainment to the masses in the form of user generated content then it has to become a much more user friendly experience. There are many entertaining videos on the web but these are far exceeded in number by those of low quality and little interest.
One of the major issues, aside from the sheer volume of content, is that sites hosting these videos rely upon automated computer systems to collate content and provide search results. Without a discerning human eye to provide an element of quality control there are no guarantees as to the entertainment or interest value of each video. There is also no way of ensuring that this content is labelled correctly which means search engines return many irrelevant results.
Survey Methodology
The Kelton Research survey was carried out in June 2007 using an email invitation and an online survey.
Quotas
were set to ensure accurate representation of the total US population in regard to the country's age, regional
and
income distributions. Results of any sample are subject to sampling variations. The magnitude of the variation
is
measurable and affected by the number of interviews and the level of percentages expressing the results. In this
particular survey, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 4
percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in
the
universe represented by the sample.