Web Video for Beginners

Video is all over the place on the web nowadays, and nobody wants to get left behind. But how do you add video to a website, and, more importantly, why should you?

The advent of video-sharing websites and the increasing ubiquity of broadband internet connections are shifting the role of video on the web from an occasional bit player to a regular lead actor. Web-based video technologies have exploded in number and complexity, making it more confusing than ever to figure out how to integrate video content with your website. So where to start?

This article won't get into the nitty-gritty details of programming code, but we will give you the basic information necessary to make informed decisions about how and where to add video to your site.

What Is Your Purpose?

Before you begin thinking about the technical details, the first thing you need to consider is why you want video on your site. If your answer is something like, "because I want everyone to see my home video of my granddaughter's birthday party," your subsequent decisions are going to be very different from those you'll have if you're putting a demo reel up in the hopes that some Hollywood producer will stumble by your site and decide you're the next Spielberg or Scorsese.

Where Does It Go?

Once you know why you want video, your next step is to consider its presentation on your site: where does it go, and how will it look? Do you want to embed the video in your website? In other words, do you want a little screen, on which the video plays, to appear right in the middle of your home page?