Streaming video for your website can be played almost immediately, much like an individual can turn on their television and see the channels immediately.

There are some times in which an individual will need to wait very momentarily in order to watch the video simply because the media player and the host server need to establish a connection, and then the video needs to be buffered, but then it can be played quite easily.

Meanwhile, the process of downloading a video can take a longer amount of time since the individual will not be able to play the video at all until it is completely downloaded and the individual has located the file on their computer.

Depending on a person’s connection to the internet, the time of this process will vary greatly, and be a real test of patience and a strain on computer memory. I got one download the other day that was only a couple of minutes but took up 11 megs of space even zipped. Ridiculous.

Downloads are almost always a lot slower compared to streaming video.
As a result, there are many people that are interested in being offered the chance to view streaming video off of a website, as opposed to being able to download a video off of a website and then having to find the file and play it from another media player.

It is much less complicated to just play the file on the website, and it often takes much less time to complete this action when compared to the other available options of viewing or playing a particular video or file.

When in doubt, you can offer both, so that people can view it, and then decide if they want to keep it, and download it. If you go for the download option, zip the file to try to keep the footprint and download time small.

Streaming video, and video blogs, (vlogs) are becoming more and more mainstream as the technology gets better, and people’s internet connections more speedy. If you do decide to offer streaming video at your site, just remember that it should enhance the overall image of your company or site, not just be there because you want your site to have all the bells and whistles.

Like the now reviled Flash page, don’t take up a site visitor’s time and bandwidth unless you have something really worthwhile to show them that would not be captured as effectively with words on the page.

And keep in mind that you should always use keywords and appropriate names to describe and name any videos at your site. Some people even offer textual transcription of their video in order to benefit from the keywords. After all, videos are content too.

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When considering streaming video for your website, you need to look at all the different ways in which a person can benefit from either viewing or offering streaming video.

Video is becoming an increasingly popular method of delivering information, because you can match it with written content so your visitors are able to view information and videos on the internet at the same time.

You can also do professional presentations, interviews, and more.

While some people offer the ability to download certain materials and video clips from their website, other people are able to offer streaming video from their website in order to help capture the attention of the individuals that are interested in viewing it.

Why offer streaming video? First of all, an individual can take up less memory on their website by offering streaming videos.

Offering individuals downloads of your videos from your website may cause the site to run slower if many people are downloading all at once. When a site or a video is especially popular, this can be a good thing, but if it is draining your resources and slowing the site down, streaming video is a great option.

Your visitor will also be happy with streaming video because it will not be slow-running and jerky, or take up a lot of memory on their computer as a download.

In addition, there will be few or no software compatibility issues. You won’t have to have the exact media player in order to view the streaming video.

Streaming video takes up less time when it comes to playing the material in most instances, so many people prefer it to downloading the material, since many people are nervous of viruses, spyware, adware and malware getting onto their computer.